GOD OUR FATHER 



Autlior of *' The Happiness of Heaven," 



"Thus therefore shall yon pray : Our Father who 
art in heaven."— vi. 9. 



BALTIMOEEj 
Published by John Murphy & Co. 

NEW YOEK: 

Catholic Publication Society. 
1 8 7 3. 




The Library 

OF COHGRBSS 
WASHINGTON 



Approbations. 

I, Thomas O'Xeil, Provincial of the Society of Jesus in Missouri, 
in virtue of power granted to me by the Yery Reverend P. Beckx, 
Superior General of the same Society, hereby permit the publication 
of a book entitled : " God our Father, by a Father of the Society 
of Jesus ; " the same having been approved by the censors appointed 
to revise it. Thomas O'Neil, S. J. 

>a. Louis, Mo., 8 Dec, 1872. 



Imprisfatur, 

J. ROOSEVELT BAYLEY, 

ArcMep. Baltimorensia, 

Baltinm-e, 30 Dec, 1872. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by 

J H N M U R P H T, 

In the OflBce of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



PREFACE. 



I'N presenting tMs little book to the 
pnblic, the author would express 
Ms grateful thanks for the very favor- 
able manner in which " The Happijstess 
OF Heayek was received. The little 
treatise now presented was the author's 
first attempt at book writing; but cir- 
cumstances did not then permiMts pub- 
lication. These no longer existing, he 
presents it to the same kind public, beg- 
ging for it a share of the charitable 
indulgence extended to the other. 

3 



iv 



PEEFACE. 



Though written principally to meet 
the wants of a certain class of pious 
people, it should not be inferred that 
they alone can derive profit from its 
perusal. Indeed, it is hoped that all, 
without exception, will be benefited 
by viewing God as their Father. Even 
the poor sinner, who has almost lost 
hope, will recover it and return to his 
Christian duties as soon as he becomes 
convinced that God is a Father, ready 
to receive him and to forgive all his 
sins. Should even one such be brought 
back to the bosom of our heavenly 
Father, the author will feel himself 
abundantly rewarded for all his toil. 

St. Louis UniveesitTj St. Louis, Mo. 

Christmas Dmj^ 1872 



CHAPTER. PAGE. 

I. Why SO many persons do not loye God as 

they desire . . . , 7 

n. If we would see God, by Faith, as He has 
revealed Himself to us, we must view 

Him as our Father 26 

in. An objection answered 44 

IV. We must view God as our Father, if we 
would be in perfect harmony with the 
New Law, which is one of Love 68 

V. God is our Father because He is our Crea- 

tor 90 

VI. God is our Father because He has adopted 

us in Jesus Christ » - o . . . 115 

5 



vi 



COITTENTS. 



CHAPTER. PAGE. 

YII. Yiewing God as our Father is of the great- 
est help to us in the time of spiritual 
desolation 134 

YIII. Yiewing God as our Father produces peace 

of conscience as to our past sins 164 

IX. Yiewing God as our Father produces per- 
fect love 187 



GOD OUR FATHER. 



CHAPTER I. 

WHY SO MAKY PERSOITS DO ISTOT LOYE 
dOD AS THEY DESIRE. 

MANY persons Mglily gifted, both 
by nature and grace, with, religi- 
ous dispositions, earnestly desire to love 
God above all things, with their whole 
heart, with their whole soul, with all 
their strength and with all their mind. 
In order to reach this perfection of love, 
they live a truly Christian life. They 
confess and receive holy communion as 



8 GOD OUR TATHEE. 

often as tliey are permitted ; and tliey 
certainly endeavor to perform tliese two 
lioly actions with tlie necessary disposi- 
tions. They hear mass devoutly on Sun- 
days, holy days, and even on week days. 
They listen attentively and respectfully 
to sermons ; and they seldom, if ever, 
neglect the duty of prayer. In a word, 
they really try to he good, by perform- 
ing all their duties, and by practising 
the virtues which their state and posi- 
tion in life demand. They are not only 
in earnest about saving their souls, but 
many of them are, moreover, aiming at 
a high degree of Christian perfection, 
either in the world or in religious com- 
munities. They are, therefore, members 
of that little flock which the heart of 
Jesus loves so tenderly, and which He 



GOD OUR FATHEE. 



9 



addresses in these words : " Fear not, 
little flock, for it liatli pleased your 
Father to give you a kingdom."^ 

Now, we should naturally believe 
that, in all such persons, there exist a 
most tender love for Grod, a most inti- 
mate familiarity with Him, and a cease- 
less longing to be united to Him forever. 
We should expect to find "the peace 
of God, which surpasseth all under- 
staiiding,"f reposing calm and supreme 
in the very depths of their souls. It 
would seem as if the thought of God, 
whom they serve so faithfully, must be 
the sunshine of their lives, and that 
they already enjoy a foretaste of hea- 
ven. And so it is with many. They 
have every reason to believe that they 

* Luke xii. 32. f PM. iy. 7. 



10 



GOD OUR FATHER. 



are in a state of grace, and tliat God 
loves them in return for the love which 
they bear Him. They enjoy that peace 
which Jesus gave to His disciples, when 
He said : " Peace I leave with you, my 
peace I give unto you ; not as the world 
giveth, do I give unto you. Let not 
your heart be troubled, nor let it be 
afraid."^ 

But with others it is very different ; 
indeed, it is quite the reverse. For if 
we penetrate beyond that beautiful ex- 
terior of piety which has led us to form 
such a judgment of them, we find, to 
our extreme astonishment, that, instead 
of a tender and filial love for Grod, and 
a childlike confidence in Him, they have 
an inordinate fear, and even a positive 

* John xiv. 27. 



GOD OUR FATHEE. 



11 



dread of Him. They do not love God ; 
at least so they imagine. Again and 
again have they endeavored to love 
Him, but it seems to them every day 
more and more impossible. They see 
little or nothing amiable in Him ; no- 
thing that can captivate their hearts. 
They cannot even see that He is good. 
The fact is, they have to struggle much 
in order to keep the faith, and not to 
fall into downright infidelity. Hence, 
the thought of death, and of appearing 
before the Living God, produces in them 
impressions very similar to those felt 
by the condemned criminal, when he 
hears the prison door opened for the 
purpose of leading him to the scaffold. 
Oh, if they could only love God ! If 
they could only believe that He loves 



12 



GOD CUE FATHEB. 



tliem! How light tlieir hearts would 
be, and what an exquisite happiness 
they would enjoy, even in this world ! 

This is certainly a bad state ; or, at 
least, it has all the appearance of being 
such. I have not overdrawn the picture ; 
for I have stated precisely what these 
good people feel, and what they say of 
themselves. In some, it is true, this de- 
pression of mind may not be so great ; 
but, in others, it even borders on in- 
sanity. 

Before saying anything of the cause 
or causes which may bring about so un- 
desirable a state of mind, or pointing 
out the remedies to be applied for its 
cure, these good people must be told, 
first of all, that, whatever they may feel 
or think of themselves, they most cer- 



GOD OUR FATHER. 



13 



tainly Ic^ve 'God, and that He as certainly 
loves them in return. Their love for Him 
is not sensible, it is true ; but it is sincere 
and devoted. They do not, indeed, enjoy 
the sensible sweetness which God some- 
times pours into the souls of His be- 
loved children ; but, how desirable so- 
ever such consolation may be, it is not, 
in the least, necessary to prove the ex- 
istence of a true and sincere love for 
God. The evidence of a true love for 
God does not consist in sensible devo- 
tion, but in the keeping of His com- 
mandments. This is what Jesus Christ 
Himself tells us : If you love me, keep 
my commandments. ... He that hath 
my commandments and keepeth them, 
he it is that loveth me. And he that 
loveth me shall be loved by my Father ; 



14 



GOD OUR FATHER. 



and I will love Mm, and will manifest 
myself to Mm.'"^ These clear and em- 
phatic words of Our Blessed Lord make 
it as evident as the light of day, that 
the keeping of His commandments is, 
"by itself, a positive manifestation of our 
love for Him. "Whatever, therefore, 
may be yonr opinion of yourself, and 
whatever may be your feeling, or ab- 
sence of feeling, in the service of Grod, 
rest assured that you really love Him, 
and that He loves you, so long as you 
lead a good life — such a life as I have 
already described. 

Nevertheless, it must also be ac- 
knowledged that such a disturbed state 
of the mind is not the normal or hab- 
itual one which God intended for His 

* John xiv. 15. 



GOD OIJK FATHER. 



15 



cMldren. "We shall, therefore, inqnire 
into the causes which bring abont this 
restlessness and apparent inability to 
love God. 

There can be many causes whose 
combined action may spread gloom and 
despondency in the soul, and induce 
persons to believe that they do not en- 
joy the divine favor. But we shall men- 
tion only three — probably the principal 
ones — and of these only one will be 
treated of at length in this book. 

1. This total absence of sensible devo- 
tion, darkness and dread of Grod may 
be a just punishment which He inflicts 
upon us for our sins, especially sins 
against charity, so common among per- 
sons who make an open profession of 
piety. It may, also, be a punishment 



16 GOD OUR FATHER. 

for lukewarmness in the service of Grod, 
dissipation of mind, idleness, a general 
want of generosity toward God, and 
otlier imperfections ; for God often 
withdraws all sensible sweetness in 
the practice of religion from those who 
are not generous toward Him. If, 
therefore, you stand guilty of the faults 
above-mentioned, the simple remedy is 
evidently to take more care in avoiding 
sin, and to be more generous toward 
God. 

2. This state may also be a trial from 
God, through which holy souls must pass 
in order to be cleansed from earthly 
stains, and be made to resemble Jesus 
Christ more perfectly. For, as St. Paul 
tells us, ''Whom He foreknew He also 
predestined to be made conformable to 



GOD OUR FATHEE. 



17 



the image of His Son."^ Hence, after re- 
vealing to them His surpassing Tbeanty, 
and filling them with the sweetest con- 
solations, God, suddenly or gradually, 
withdraws from them His sensible pres- 
ence, and then darkness overspreads the 
soul. All the beauty and other perfec- 
tions which they had formerly seen in 
God, and which had so often been the 
subjects of their contemplations, now 
seem entirely faded. Old passions, 
which they had so courageously mor- 
tified, and which they thought dead and 
buried forever, suddenly spring into life 
again, and, aided by the devil, wage a 
fearful war against them. Their past 
sins and infidelities, which they had 
fondly hoped long since forgiven and 

* Rom. vii. 29. 
B 



18 



GOD OUK TATHER. 



forgotten, rise up now in the most hor- 
rid shapes, and loudly call upon hea- 
ven for vengeance. In their nnspeak- 
able distress, they look up to heaven 
for help ; but the heavens seem to be 
made of brass. They see there nothing 
but a thrice-holy God, who seems angry 
with them, and on the point of hurling 
them to the deepest hell. This vision 
of an offended and angry Judge fills 
them with so great a fear and dread 
that their former tender love for God 
aj)pears to have entirely died away. 
They then feel, in a certain degree, the 
intense agony which overwhelmed the 
soul of Jesus when he cried out : " My 
God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken 
Me?" 

These are some of the severe trials 



GOD OUR FATHER. 19 

we read of in the lives of tlie saints. 
They are like a fire throngh which cho- 
sen souls pass in order to be purified 
from the remnants of earthly dross and 
imperfection. By such trials they are 
made worthy of God, according to the 
words of the Wise Man: Afflicted in 
a few things, in many they shall be re- 
warded: because God hath tried them 
and found them worthy of Himself. As 
gold in the furnace, He hath proved 
them, and as a victim of a holocaust. 
He hath received them, and in time 
there shall be respect had to them.'"^ 
Besides being purified and made to re- 
semble Jesus Christ the more, their 
merits are vastly increased; and, by 
such trials, they become more qualified 

* Wis. iii. 



20 



GOD OUE FATHER. 



to do great tilings for Grod's glory and 
for the salvation of souls. 

Here, tlien, we liave the second cause 
of that darkness of mind and dread of 
Grod. But, as is evident in the case of 
saints, it is a trial which comes and 
goes, and not the habitual path in 
which chosen souls walk ; for, after the 
fearful storm, the heavens brighten 
again, and we find the same souls bask- 
ing once more in the sweet light of 
God's countenance. Besides, such se- 
vere trials are usually given only to the 
chosen few whom God conducts to Him- 
self by extraordinary ways — ways to 
which none of us should ever aspire. 

3. We now come to the third cause 
of the sad state complained of by so 
many professedly pious people, and it 



GOD OIJR FATHEE. 21 

is the only one to wliicli I call yonr 
special attention. You take wrong 
yiews of God. Yon view Him liabitn- 
ally, and almost exclusively, as yonr 
Sovereign Lord and Judge, King and 
Master, and almost entirely ignore His 
fatherly character. You forget that, 
while remaining your Lord and Judge, 
He is also your Father, and that He 
loves you infinitely more than earthly 
parents ever can love their children. 
You seem to forget that He is' also your 
Redeemer, who, having clothed Himself 
with our nature, exhibited His love for 
you "by a life of humiliations and suffer- 
ings, and by a most ignominious death 
upon the cross. In a word, you forget 
or ignore all that is most tender, amia- 
ble and beautiful in God, and fix your 



22 



aOD OTJE FATHER. 



mind morbidly npon those forbidding 
attributes, wliicli, bj their very nature, 
inspire fear, and even dread. The natu- 
ral consequence is, that you are filled 
with a fear of God so inordinate as to 
prevent you from loving Him with the 
filial love which He asks when He 
says : ''My son, give me thy heart.'"'^ 

JSTow, what is the remedy to be ap- 
plied for the cure of this morbid state 
of mind ? The remedy evidently con- 
sists in viewing God rightly — that is, in 
all His divine attributes, without ignor- 
ing any or exaggerating one bej^ond the 
others ; it consists, moreover, in giving, 
in our minds, a bold prominence to 
those attributes which God has exer- 
cised more than others in our regard. 

* Prov. xxiii. 26. 



GOD OUR FATHER. 



33 



In other words, it consists in viewing 
God habitually more in those attri- 
butes which inspire love and confi- 
dence, and less in those which inspire 
fear and dread. 

It would be impossible, in so small a 
book, to dwell at length and separately 
upon the beauty of God, upon His 
goodness and unspeakable love for us, 
upon His mercy and compassion for 
sinners, or upon whatever else is, by 
its nature, calculated to kindle in ub a 
tender love for Him, and a childlike 
confidence in His mercy ; yet we shall, 
in reality, do all this by viewing Him 
in the one divine attribute, which is, so 
to speak, the origin or source of all His 
love and compassion for us — His Divine 
Paternity. We shall see, as we pro- 



24 



GOD OUE FATHEE. 



ceed, that God is our Father in a sense 
so profound that we can never fathom 
it with our present limited powers. We 
shall see that He has not only revealed 
Himself to us in that most endearing 
character, but, moreover, that it is His 
expressed will we should habitually 
view Him as our Father. Furthermore, 
we shall become convinced that, to con- 
sider Grod as our Father, is the source 
of peace, love, and numberless other 
blessings. For, as soon as this becomes 
your habitual view of Him, those dark 
clouds, of which you ha^ e so often com- 
plained, will disappear, as the morning 
mists vanish before the rising sun. A 
heavenly light v/ill shine where dark- 
ness had brooded before ; and, instead 
of inordinate fear, there will spring up 



GOD OUR FATHER. 25 

love, peaceful confidence, and a sweet 
familiarity witli God. You will seem 
to yourself a new creature, gifted with 
the wings of the dove, wherewith to fly 
to the highest perfection, for you will 
then love God with your whole heart 
and soul, as you so ardently desire. 



CHAPTER II. 



IF WE WOULD SEE GOD, BY FAITH, AS HE 
HAS EEVEALED HIMSELF TO US, WE 
JMUST YIEW HIM AS OUR FATHER. 



^ ^ existence, see God as He is ; but 
in onr heavenly liome we shall befeold 
Him, face to face, in the nnclonded vis- 
ion of His divine essence. The glorions 
sight will fill us to overflowing with the 
most perfect knowledge of Him ; and 
that knowledge, together with the ardent 
love which it kindles, will give birth to 
the happiness which mortal eye hath 
not seen, nor ear heard, nor heart of 




cannot, in onr present state of 



26 



GOD OUR FATHER. 27 

man ever been able to conceive. How- 
ever, even in this world, we can know 
God in such a manner that our knowl- 
edge of Him will beget love and hap- 
piness, as perfect as can be hoped for 
in our present state of existence. But, 
in order to effect a result so desirable, 
our idea of Him must accord with what 
He has been pleased to reveal of Him- 
self. Our representation of Him must 
be one in which His fatherly character 
enters, not only as an essential element, 
but one, moreover, in which this char- 
acter stands out boldly and promi- 
nently above all His other divine attri- 
butes. It is true that the attributes of 
God, considered in themselves, are all 
equally infinite ^ that one is not greater 
than another ; that He has no more 



28 



GOD OUR FATHEE. 



power than wisdom, no more wisdom 
than holiness, no more holiness than 
justice. Greater and less are not in 
Him, but each perfection is simply in- 
finite. Hence, we have no right to ex- 
alt one of His attributes above the 
others when we consider them in them- 
selves. 

The case, however, is quite different 
when we consider these attributes rela- 
tively to ourselves ; for it is very possi- 
ble that, in our regard, God may have 
exercised one more than another ; and 
if so, we may certainly exalt that one 
above all the rest. K'ow, has God ever 
done so in reality ? Is there any one of 
His divine attributes to which He has 
given this preference ? Most undoubt- 
edly there is. And which one is it ? Is it 



GOD OUR TATHEE. 29 

His justice in punishing sin ? Certainly 
not. For where should you now be. 
Christian reader, if God had dealt out 
to you His justice instead of His mer- 
cy ? Should you now be reading these 
pages ? Should you still be in this 
world, surrounded, as you are, with so 
many blessings, and having at hand so 
many means of reaching heaven ? You 
certainly would not, if ever you had 
the misfortune of committing even one 
mortal sin. For if God had exercised 
His justice rather than His mercy, you 
would now be doomed to exterior dark- 
ness, where there is weeping and gnash- 
ing of teeth. Truly, we may say with the 
royal prophet : " The Lord is gracious 
and merciful : patient and plenteous in 
mercy. The Lord is sweet to all : and 



30 GOD OUR FATHER. 

His tender mercies are above all His 
works. '"^ 

This does not mean that His mercy is 
really greater than His other attributes ; 
but it does mean that, in our regard. 
He has exercised His patience, mercy, 
goodness and love more than His jus- 
tice in punishing our sins. Hence, in 
forming in our minds a picture of God, 
we not only maj^, but we must, give 
prominence to His fatherly character, 
otherwise we do not see Him as He has 
most certainly revealed Himself to us. 
This is an injustice to God, of which 
many good people render themselves 
guilty. In their meditations they pic- 
ture Him to themselves, uniformly and 
habitually, in the light of a terrible 
* Ps. cxliv. 



GOD OUR FATHEE. 31 

Judge rather than in that of a tender 
Father. In their minds. He is an nn- 
bending, inexorable Judge, all-know- 
ing, all- wise, all-powerful ; having an 
unspeakable hatred for sin, and pun- 
ishing it with an implacable and mer- 
ciless justice. He is a Judge who makes 
no allowance for the infirmity of our 
fallen nature ; one whose almost exclu- 
sive occupation is to watch His crea- 
tures with all scrutiny in order to find 
fault with them ; one who is never sat- 
isfied with their service ; one who is 
ever holding the scales of the sanctu- 
ary in one hand, and the rod of justice 
in the other ; ever ready to strike, ever 
ready to pronounce the fatal sentence 
that is to hurl His ill-fated creatures 
into the everlasting fire, which was 



32 



GOD OUR FATHER. 



prepared for the devil and his an- 
gels." 

Here is a pictnre of God as painted 
by many pions persons who are earn- 
estly trying to serve and love Him with 
their whole heart. In it we have only 
one attribute held in view, and that one 
exaggerated beyond all measure. It is 
an image of God in which the severity 
of His justice in punishing sin receives 
undue prominence ; while His patience, 
in waiting for the return of the sinner ; 
His mercy, in receiving him after his 
wanderings ; the tenderness with which 
He presses him to His bosom ; His 
unspeakable liberality in clothing him 
again with the robe of innocence, and 
restoring to him all the privileges he 
had lost by his many sins, are en- 



GOD OUE FATHEE. 



33 



tirely ignored, or rather totally eclipsed. 
"Who can have a tender and a filial love 
for God when He is so represented, or 
rather, misrepresented? This is not 
God, such as He has revealed Himself 
to us. This is not the ever-blessed and 
the ever-beautiful, the ever-loving and 
forgiving God. This is not the vision of 
the Eternal Beauty and of the Eternal 
Truth. It is not our Father who is in 
heaven. It is only a fancy, something 
of your own creation, which neither has, 
nor can have, any existence outside of 
your imagination. That this view is 
an injustice to God, becomes evident 
with a little reflection. 

Let us suppose, for the sake of illus- 
tration, that you procure a book which 

purposes to be the life and character of 
c 



34 



GOD CUE FATHEE. 



St. Louis, king of France. As yon read 
on, however, yon find it to be scarcely 
any more than a catalogue of the pun- 
ishments which he inflicted, with a se- 
vere yet impartial justice, upon mur- 
derers, rebels, blasphemers, and oppres- 
sors of the poor. These alone, in their 
most minute details, are dwelt upon^ 
exaggerated, and painted in colors 
which fill the mind with horror, while 
his more winning qualities are ignored 
or barely mentioned. You had often 
heard that the charity of St. Louis was 
the most conspicuous of his virtues ; 
that he served the poor at table with 
his own hands, and visited them in their 
hospitals ; that he founded a great hos- 
pital for the blind, and that he placed 
in it, from the very first, three hundred 



GOD OUE FATHEE. 



35 



patients; that lie likewise made pro- 
vision for the poor, whom he main- 
tained ont of his own private purse ; 
that he had every day one hundred 
and twenty indigent persons at table, 
near his palace; that he kept lists of 
gentlemen in reduced circumstances, 
and of widows in distress, in every 
province of his dominions, whom he 
regularly relieved; that he was mer- 
ciful to all, even to those who re- 
volted against his authority and at- 
tempted to fill the kingdom with blood- 
shed *and ruin. These, and innumera- 
ble other acts of charity to the poor, of 
kindness and clemency to evil-doers, 
are all ignored in this book, and the 
reader is left to infer that, during a long 
reign of forty years, the almost exclu- 



36 



GOD OUE FATHEE. 



sive occupation of this saint was the 
punishing of delinquents and malefac- 
tors. 

Who does not see the injustice that 
would be done to St. Louis by this very 
limited view of his character? Who 
would not censure the author of such a 
book for thus misrepresenting one of 
the noblest characters recorded in all 
history? For a view so partial does 
misrepresent him; not indeed by cal- 
umny and falsehood, but by an unjust 
silence, which leads you to judge that 
he was over-severe and cruel, not to 
say blood-thirsty. 

Now, this is precisely the injustice of 
which many good people render them- 
selves guilty in reference to God. In 
forming their idea of Him, they look 



GOD OUR FATHER. 87 

almost exclusively at tlie catalogue, re- 
corded in Scripture, of dreadful punish- 
ments wMcIl He inflicted upon idolaters, 
transgressors of tlie law, natural or 
written, and other evil-doers, while 
they ignore the numberless favors 
which He bestowed upon them. By 
thus dwelling almost exclusively upon 
these chastisements, they evidently 
take a narrow-minded view of God, 
and thus unfortunately succeed in re- 
presenting Him to themselves, to say 
the least, in a very unfavorable light ; 
for in it His almost exclusive occupa- 
tion is dealing out punishments to sin- 
ners. Now, if, as we have seen, the 
misrepresentations of St. Louis would 
be an injustice to him, who was only a 
man, what shall we say of the injustice 



38 



GOD OUE FATHEE. 



done to the infinitely good and gracious 
God, by onr perversely representing 
Him to ourselves almost exclusively as 
a severe Judge ? 

All that I ask of you is, that you 
take a fair and just view of God ; that, 
Tby frequent meditation, you endeavor 
to picture Him to yourself in all His 
divine attributes — ignoring none, exag- 
gerating none, nor exalting one above 
the others, unless it be His love and 
mercy. This He has allowed and 
taught. You must, therefore, no longer 
let your mind dwell morbidly and al- 
most exclusively on the terrible punish- 
ments which He inflicted upon evil- 
doers, especially among His own chosen 
people. You must also carefully take 
into account the wonderful favors which 



GOD OXJR FATHER. 



39 



He bestowed upon them ; the stupend- 
ous miracles He almost daily wrought 
in their behalf; the unspeakable love 
which He cherished for them, in spite 
of their revolting sins and base ingrati- 
tude ; the numberless times He forgave 
them when they deserved chastisement ; 
the unwearied patience with which He 
bore with them; the fatherly provi- 
dence with which He supplied their 
wants and nursed their every care. 

But this is not alL You are a Chris- 
tian, and you must, therefore, appre- 
ciate favors which reveal God as our 
Father in a sense that the carnal minds 
of the Jews never dreamt of. You must, 
in picturing God to yourself, let the In- 
carnation of His only begotten Son 
have its place, as well as His life, 



40 



GOD OUE FATHEE. 



passion and ignominious death npon 
tlie cross, together with all the graces 
of which that death is the sonrce — - 
faith, hope, charity, the sacraments, 
and other "blessings which we, as Chris- 
tians, enjoy. All these reveal His 
paternal love. " For Grod so loved the 
world as to give His only begotten 
Son ; that whosoever believeth in Him 
may not perish, Jout may have life 
everlasting." ^ 

Yes, Christian sonl, this manifesta- 
tion of God's love for ns surpasses in 
grandeur and magnificence all other 
favors ever before granted to man. If 
David could say, long before the Re- 
demption, that the tender mercies of 
God were above all His works, what 

* John iii. 16. 



GOD OUR FATHER. 



41 



shall we say now that He has delivered 
His own -Son to death for onr sake ? 
When, therefore, in future you medi- 
tate on God, you must accustom your- 
self to view Him as a tender Father, 
since He has revealed Himself so promi- 
nently in that character. Unless you 
do so, you not only do Him an injus- 
tice, but, at the same time, you do 
yourself an injury; for filial feelings, 
familiarity and child-like confidence 
are impossible so long as you insist 
upon considering Him almost exclu- 
sively as your Judge. Your Judge 
most undoubtedly He is, but He is also 
your Father. 

It was thus the saints looked upon 
God. Hence they could spend hours 
and days in the contemplation of His 



42 



GOD OUR FATHEE. 



divine beauty. Loving Him with an 
almost seraphic love, and burning with 
a desire to see Him face to face, they 
exclaimed with the royal prophet: 
''As the hart panteth after the foun- 
tains of water, so my soul panteth 
after Thee, O God. My soul hath 
thirsted after the strong living God; 
when shall I come and appear before 
the face of God ? " ^ 

When they thus thirsted after God, 
think you that the severity of His jus- 
tice in punishing sin was concealed 
from them ? Think you they were 
blind to the lightnings, and deaf to the 
thunders of His justice ? Far from it. 
But they saw this divine attribute in 
harmony with the others, and instead 

* Ps. xli. 



GOD OUR FATHER. 43 

of marring the beanty of their vision, 
it only made it more perfect. Where- 
fore, in spite of the thunders of His 
justice, they loved more than they 
feared, and called God their Father. 

But you may say that notwithstand- 
ing the truth of all that has been said, 
still the Holy Scriptures so abound 
with instances of God's severity in 
punishing sin, even venial sin, that it 
would seem as if He wished Himself to 
be considered as a severe Judge rather 
than as a Father. We shall, in the 
next chapter, endeavor to give a satis- 
factory answer to this apparently rea- 
sonable objection. 



CHAPTER in. 



AN OBJECTIO]^ AI^^SWEEED. 

EE objection we have to answer is 



Ible punishments inflicted by the Al- 
mighty for both grievous and venial 
sins, would it not seem as if He did not 
wish to be viewed as our Father ? This, 
I think, is the whole difficulty fairly 
stated. In order to answer it in a 
satisfactory manner, we will make a 
a few observations, which, while aiding 
you to form a just estimate of the chas- 
tisements which God inflicted upon sin- 
ners under the Jewish dispensation, 




When we consider the terri- 



GOD OUK FATHEE. 45 

will also prepare the way to remove the 
difficulty in question. 
In studying the life and the char- 

^ acter of some great king — the wars he 
waged, the punishments he inflicted 
upon malefactors, the rewards he be- 
stowed upon those who signalized them- 
selves in his service, his policy at 
home and abroad, and other things of 
the kind — we must be careful to con- 
sider him together with the times in 
which he lived. We must, moreover, 
take into account the prevailing reli- 
gion, true or false, the traditions, man- 
ners and customs, as well as the pecu- 
liar character of his people. For if, 
instead of doing this, which is the 
plain dictate of common sense, we 

• judge him and the events of his day 



46 



GOD OUR FATHER. 



according to our present standards, 
manners, usages, and prevailing opin- 
ions, we shall never form a fair esti- 
mate. We shall often be exposed to 
condemn where we should praise, and, 
on the other hand, to applaud where 
we should condemn. This is a wise 
rule, which many forget while study- 
ing history ; and hence, they never 
know history as it really is, even 
though they be well acquainted with 
its naked facts. 

Now, if we desire to understand 
something of God and of His dealings 
with men, especially under the Jewish 
dispensation, we must carefully and 
constantly keep this important rule in 
view. We must have regard to the 
times, the circumstances, and especially 



GOD CUE FATHEE. 



47 



must we take into account the peculiar 
character of the Jewish people. And 
what was their character? We find 
it graphically described upon almost 
every page of the Old Testament. 
They are represented as an ungrateful, 
gross, perverse, carnal-minded, stiff- 
necked people, upon whom the won- 
derful favors bestowed by the Al- 
mighty seem to have made no lasting 
impression. God was, therefore, con- 
strained to give prominence to those 
attributes which inspire fear and dread, 
rather than to those which could have 
inspired the tenderest love in a people 
less carnal and perverse. 

Moreover, in all the punishments 
which God inflicted upon them, we 
must ever bear in mind the threefold 



48 



GOD OUR EATHEE. 



end wMcli He liad in view. The first 
was to punish the sin itself. The 
second was to fill the minds of His 
people with a great fear, and even 
dread of His irresistible power, and of 
His unflinching justice in punishing 
sin. This is what they are told, in 
plain words, by Moses : ''For God has 
come to prove you, and that the dread 
of Him might be in you, and you 
should not sin."^ 

The third end which God had in view 
in all these visible punishments, needs 
a little explanation. The Jews had 
been chosen and separated from other 
nations, to fulfil a most important mis- 
sion. They were to restore in the world 
the well-nigh obliterated knowledge and 

* Exod. XX. 20. 



GOD CUE FATHEE. 



49 



worship of tlie true "God. They were, 
moreover, to prepare the world for the 
coming of the Redeemer, who, accord- 
ing to the flesh, was to be a lineal de- 
scendant of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, 
David, and other patriarchs. Hence, 
whether they would or not, they had to 
remain one people. They could^not be 
allowed to lose their nationality, by 
mingling with the idolatrous nations 
that surrounded them. Hence, a law 
was given them, which, while it was a 
wonderful bond of union, also prefig- 
ured the new law in its manifold rites, 
sacrifices and observances. That law 
was, in fact, the bud from which was to 
bloom the law of grace and love, bear- 
ing the more abundant fruits of salva- 
tion. 

B 



50 GOD OUE FATHEE. 

Now^ if we consider tlie well-known 
character of the Jews, their perverse- 
nesSj their proneness to idolatry, and 
their inclination to mingle by marriage 
with heathen nations, we shall see that 
the desired end could not have been 
obtained without terrible punishments, 
during the one thousand and four hun- 
dred years they were under the law. 
They would have been obliterated as a 
people, and would thus have frustrated 
the designs of Grod, but for the iron rod 
which kept them together, fulfilling 
their great mission even in spite of 
themselves. 

But, besides the mission w^hich they 
were thus compelled to fulfil among 
themselves, by preserving the worship 
of the true God, and preparing the 



\ 

GOD OUR FATHEE. 



51 



world for the Redeemer, it was God's 
will to make use of them as mission- 
aries, to publish His name to the Gen- 
tiles, among whom scarce a trace of the 
primitive religion remained. Thus, 
while God punished them for their sins 
Iby making them captives and slaves to 
Gentile kings, they taught their idola- 
trous masters that there is but one true 
and mighty God. We shall give one 
instance out of the many : 

When Daniel was thrown by Darius 
into the lions' den he was preserved 
from harm by the power of God. This 
stupendous miracle made so great an 
impression upon the mind of the idola- 
trous king that he immediately publish- 
ed the following edict: ''Peace be mul- 
tiplied unto you. It is decreed by me, 



52 GOD OUE FATHER. 

tliat in all my empire and my kingdom, 
all men shall dread and fear the God of 
Daniel. For He is the living and eternal 
God forever: and His kingdom shall 
not be destroyed, and His power shall 
be forever. He is the deliverer and 
Saviour, doing signs and wonders in 
heaven and on earth : who hath deliv- 
ered Daniel out of the lions' den." ^ 
Here we see the different ends which 
God proposed to Himself in these pun- 
ishments. The Jews are chastised for 
their sins, the fear of God is increased 
in their hearts, the world is gradually 
prepared for the Messiah, and the name 
of the true and only God is published 
among the Gentiles. Keeping these 
necessary observations in your mind, 
* Dan. vi. 



GOD OUK FATHEE. 



53 



you are prepared to see these punish- 
ments in their proper light. We shall 
now give one striking instance of Jew- 
ish perverseness, which made these aw- 
ful punishments necessary. It reveals 
the whole character of that people, and 
their almost incredible hardness of 
heart, while it makes it evident that 
nothing but the rule of an iron rod 
could keep them to their duty, even for 
a short time. 

Let us, for a moment, transport our- 
selves in spirit to Mount Sinai. Here 
we see a vast multitude of the children 
of Israel, ''being about six hundred 
thousand men on foot, besides children, 
and a mixed multitude without num- 
ber." f They have just been delivered 

fExod. xii. 37, 



54 GOD OUR FATHER. 

from a galling and degrading slavery 
by tlie most wonderful miracles, and 
are now encamped at tlie foot of the 
monntain, from whose summit they are 
about to receive the law from God Him- 
self. I quote from the sacred text : 

" And now the third day was come, 
and the morning appeared : and behold 
the thunders began to be heard, and the 
lightning to flash, and a very thick 
cloud to cover the mount, and the noise 
of the trumpet sounded exceeding loud : 
and the people that was in the camp 
feared. . . . And all Mount Sinai 
was in a smoke : because the Lord had 
come down upon it in fire, and the 
smoke arose from it as from, a furnace : 
and all the mount was terrible. And 
the Lord spoke all these words : ' I am 



GOD OUR FATHER. 



55 



the Lord thy God, who bronght thee 
out of the land of Egypt, out of the 
house of bondage. Thou shalt not have 
strange gods before Me." ^ 

Certainly this is one of the grandest 
and most sublime scenes ever witnessed 
in this world ; and one would think it 
should have made so deep and lasting 
an impression upon the Jewish people 
that they never could have even thought 
of worshipping false Gods. For, " being 
terrified and struck with great fear, they 
stood afar off, saying to Moses : Speak 
thou to us, and we will hear: let not 
the Lord speak to us, lest we die."f 

JSTevertheless, see what happens al- 
most immediately after. The echoes 
of the thunders have scarcely died away 

* Exod. xix, XX. t Exod. xx. 



56 GOD OUR TATHER. 

in the distance ; tlie voice of Grod is yet 
ringing in tlieir ears; Moses is in the 
cloud which still covers the mountain, 
conversing with God, and yet they 
shamefully fall into idolatry. Listen 
again to the sacred text : 

" And the people seeing that Moses 
delayed to come down from the mount, 
gathering together against Aaron, said : 
Arise, make us Gods, that may go be- 
fore us : for as to this Moses, the man 
that brought us out of the land of 
Egypt, we know not what has befallen 
him. And Aaron said to them, take 
the golden ear-rings from the ears of 
your wives, and your sons and daugh- 
ters, and bring them to me. And the 
people did what he had commanded, 
bringing the ear-rings to Aaron. And 



GOD OUR FATHER. 



57 



when he had received them he fashion- 
ed them by the founder's work, and 
made of them a molten calf. And they 
said : these are thy gods, Israel, that 
have brought thee out of the land of 
Egypt." ^ 

ISTow, when, under all these circum- 
stances, we behold that immense multi- 
tude prostrate before this abominable 
idol, and worshipping it with holocausts 
and peace-offerings, what are we to ex- 
pect? ISTothing, of course, except the 
terrible punishment which fell upon 
them that very day. " And there were 
slain that day about three and twenty 
thousand men."f This certainly is ter- 
rible beyond the power of words to ex- 
press. It actually chills our blood, and 

*Exod. xxxii flbid. 



58 



GOD OUR FATHER. 



yet nothing but sncli a punishment 
could open their eyes, and bring them 
back to their duty. 

If this whole occurrence were not re- 
lated in Holy Scripture, we could never 
believe that a people who had witnessed 
the grand scene already described, and 
heard the solemn voice of God forbid- 
ding idolatry, could have remained so 
blind and perverse. And mark it well, 
this is far from being the only instance 
of their falling into that sin. Idolatry 
was one of their besetting crimes ; and 
one, too, not unfrequently, accompanied 
by sins against nature so abominable 
that the mere recital of them fills our 
minds with horror. Here is a summary 
of Jewish history, taken from the one 
hundred and fifth psalm. 



GOD OUR FATHER. 



59 



" And they were mingled among the 
heathens, and learned their works : and 
served their idols, and it "became a 
stumbling block to them. And they 
sacrificed their sons, and their daughters 
to devils. And they shed innocent 
blood : the blood of their sons, and of 
their daughters, which they sacrificed 
to the idols of Chanaan. And the land 
was polluted with blood, and was de- 
filed with their works. . . . And the 
Lord was exceedingly angry with His 
people : and He abhorred His inheri- 
tance. And He delivered them into the 
hands of the nations: and they that 
hated them had dominion over them. 
And their enemies afflicted them : and 
they were humbled under their hands. 
Many times He delivered them. . . And 



60 GOD OUR FATHER. 

He saw when they were in tribulation : 
and He heard their prayer. . . . And 
He gave them unto mercies in the sight 
of all thos^ that had made them cap- 
tives." 

Here we have the substance of Jew- 
ish history, the repeated falls into idol- 
atry, unnatural, shameful and nameless 
sins. These are followed by punish- 
ments the most fearful, such as war, 
captivity, pestilence and starvation. 
Then, the people repenting, and turning 
away from their false gods and evil 
ways, call upon Heaven for mercy. 
Their prayer is heard ; they are again 
and again even miraculously delivered 
from the evils brought on by their sins. 
In a short time, however, we see them 
again falling into their abominations. 



GOD OUE FATHEE. 



61 



Evidently such a people could not be 
led loy love. Fear alone seems to have 
made any impression upon tlieir carnal 
minds ; and, even in spite of tliat, they 
sinned and continued sinning until their 
crimes culminated in rejecting and cru- 
cifying their God, and our Grod — the 
Lord Jesus Christ. This last deed seems 
to have filled the measure of their sins ; 
for they were cast off as a people, and 
scattered among the nations of the earth. 
Here then we have the reason why, 
under the Jewish dispensation, God 
gave such prominence to His sterner 
attributes of severity, power, majesty, 
and whatever else could fill the mind 
with deepest reverence, fear, and even 
dread, rather than to those more amia- 
ble attributes so capable of exciting 



62 



GOD OUE FATHER. 



love in hearts where love is to be found. 
The Jewish people, it seems, could not 
learn to love, and hence they were 
taught to fear. 

This necessary fear of God being, as 
is evident, one of the grand objects 
which God had in view in the old dis- 
pensation, it becomes easy both to un- 
derstand and explain what might other- 
wise appear altogether inexplicable ; 
I mean the terrific punishments inflict- 
ed, at times, for venial sins. Let us 
take one single instance out of the 
many — the sudden death of Oza for 
touching the swaying Ark. It does not 
appear that he was guilty of any great 
irreverence ; he certainly meant none ; 
but fearing that the Ark might fall, he 
stretched forth his hand intending to 



GOD OUR FATHEE. 



63 



stay it, and yet, in the presence of the 
multitude, he was struck dead on the 
very spot. 

]S"ow, from all that has hitherto been 
said, and from the whole tenor and spir- 
it of the Old Law, it is plain that this 
severe visitation was not so much to 
punish the rashness of Oza, as to in- 
spire the Jews with an exceeding rever- 
ence and fear for the holy Ark of the 
Living God. Moreover, He who gave 
us life can, at any moment, take it away 
without doing us any injustice. Be- 
sides, we are not obliged to believe that 
this visible punishment was followed 
by any other beyond the grave.' On 
the contrary, we may rest assured that 
if Oza had no other sin to account for, 
he is saved, and that, consequently, no 



64 GOD OUR FATHEE. 

real harm befell Mm. It may even 
have been the greatest mercy ever be- 
stowed upon him. But, however that 
may be, it is very certain that by this 
visible punishment was obtained the 
grand object which God had in view — 
namely, an increased fear in the hearts 
of His people, and an nnbonnded rev- 
erence for the Ark which contained the 
law, and which was the sanctnary 
whence He spoke. Therefore, this and 
other manifestations of God's severity 
in pnnishing even venial sins, harmo- 
nize perfectly with the existing circnm- 
stances, the pecnliar character of the 
Jewish people, and the end which was 
to be attained. 

From all this, we see that the Jews, 
as a people, did not habitnally view 



GOD OUR FATHER. 



65 



the great God in the light of a Father. 
He revealed Himself to them, from the 
first, as a most tender Father, whose 
compassion for His afflicted children led 
Him to deliver them from the degrading 
slavery under which they had so long 
groaned and suffered. To effect this 
He wrought with outstretched arm the 
grandest of miracles in their behalf. 
Soon, however, compelled by their idol- 
atry, their repeated rebellions, and their 
endless murmurings. He gave a bold 
prominence to His sterner attributes, so 
that they as a people saw in Him after- 
ward only the mighty Sovereign, the 
King of kings, the Lord of lords, the 
great Jehovah, whose holiness, power, 
majesty, and severity in punishing sin, 
filled their minds with awe and dread. 

E 



66 



GOD CUE FATHEE. 



Hence, tliey very seldom, if ever, ad- 
dressed Him Iby the endearing name of 
Fatlier. They spoke to Him as to their 
Lord and Master, the great and mighty 
Grod, the terrible Grod, the thrice-holy 
God ; but to speak to Him familiarly as 
we do, and say : " Our Father who art 
in heaven," seems never to have entered 
their minds. 

In all 1 have said, however, I do not 
mean to assert that, under the Jewish 
dispensation, no one loved God or 
served Him with fidelity ; for it is well 
known that there were, in those days, 
many saintly persons who loved and 
served Him so faithfully that they may 
be held up as models in any age of 
Christianity. Much less do I mean to 
insinuate that the Jews had not a very 



GOD OUR FATHER. 



67 



Mgh idea of Grod's infinite goodness and 
mercy ; for tliey undoubtedly had, and 
an unbounded confidence, too, in that 
mercy when they turned away from 
their evil ways, and returned to Grod 
with their whole heart. ISTever, per- 
haps, did a people place such confi- 
dence in the goodness of God, and never 
did a people experience more striking 
manifestations of His mercy in forgiv- 
ing and forgetting the past. But I re- 
peat that, for reasons already given, 
the fear of God had a prominence in the 
Old Law, which, by His express will, it 
has not in the New. For the N"ew Law 
under which we have the happiness of 
living, not only permits, but even com- 
mands, us to look up confidently, and 
say : " Our Father who art in Heaven." 



CHAPTEE IV. 



WE MUST YIEW GOD AS OUR FATHEE, IF 
WE WOULD BE IN PEEFECT HAE- 
MONY WITH THE KEW LAW, 
WHICH IS 0]N^E OF LOYE. 

HAVING seen, in tlie preceding 
chapter, that tlie Old Law was one 
of fear, and that this feature was in 
perfect harmony with the then existing 
circumstances, the ends to be attained, 
and the peculiar character of the peo- 
ple to whom the law was given, we shall 
now dwell for a few moments upon the 
spirit of the ISTew Law, which is one of 
love. And here we shall see that to 



GOD OUE FATHER. 



69 



speak to God, and of God, as our Father, 
is in perfect harmony witli the Christian 
dispensation. 

The Jewish law was given from the 
summit of a mountain amidst lightnings 
and thunders, fire and smoke, the sound 
of the trumpet, and whatever else could 
fill the mind of the Jews with fear and 
wonder. Not so with the IS'ew Law. All, 
on the contrary, is here calculated to 
drive away fear, and to inspire confi- 
dence and love. When the fulness of 
time was come, the eternal Son of God 
made His appearance in our frail nature 
and promulgated the law of grace and 
love. "And seeing the multitude. He 
went up into a mountain, and when He 
was sat down His disciples came unto 
Him, And opening His mouth He 



70 



GOD OUR FATHEE. 



tanglit tliem."^ But no dark clond 
covers tlie mountain ; no deafening 
tlinnders are heard; no angry flashes 
of lightning terrify the mnltitnde. There 
is nothing forbidding either in His voice, 
words or appearance. We see, on the 
contrary, in His whole exterior, a cer- 
tain indescribable something, so sweet, 
so humble, so meek and captivating 
that the people are filled with admira- 
tion and love. They do not, as their 
fathers had done at the foot of Mount 
Sinai, beg Him to speak no longer, lest 
they should die ; on the contrary, they 
follow Him whithersoever He goes in 
order to hear more and more of His 
life-giving doctrine. 
But the remarkable feature of His 

*Matt. V. 1. 



GOD OUR FATHER. 



71 



very first sermon on the Monnt is tlie 
fact tliat our blessed Lord constantly 
calls God onr Father. Mark this well, 
listen to Him attentively, and ponder 
upon His words. How beautifully they 
reveal the spirit of that 'New Law — that 
law of love — which He is come to pro- 
mulgate! ^' Take heed that you do not 
your justice before men, to be seen by 
them: otherwise you will not have a 
reward of your Father who is in Heav- 
en. . Pray for them that persecute 
and calumniate you, that you may be 
the children of your Father who is in 
Heaven, who maketh His sun to rise 
upon the good and the bad, and raineth 
upon the just and the unjust. . . Behold 
the birds of the air, for they neither 
•sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into 



72 



GOD OUR FATHEE. 



Ibarns : and your heavenly Father feed- 
eth. tliem. ... If you^ then, "being evil, 
know how to give good gifts to your 
children; how much more will your 
Father who is in heaven give good 
things to them that ask Him, ... For 
if you will forgive men their offences, 
your heavenly Father will forgive you 
also your offences. But if you wiH not 
forgive men, neither will your Father 
forgive your offences. . . . Thus, there- 
fore, shall you pray : Our Father who 
art in heaven. ... Be ye, therefore, 
perfect, as also your heavenly Father 
is perfect." 

From these and many other similar 
expressions found in the very first ser- 
mon which Jesus Christ ever preached, 
it is evidently the expressed will of God 



GOD OUR FATHEE. 



73 



that we Christians should view Him as 
our Father. What a sweet consolation 
there is in this new manifestation of 
God's love for ns ! Can we not exclaim 
with far more reason than David that 
the tender mercies of Grod are above all 
His other works ? Yes, Christian sonl, 
the great Jehovah, the mighty, the ter- 
rible God of the Jews, hides from your 
gaze the dazzling splendors of His maj- 
esty and power, and gives prominence 
only to the attributes of His Paternity 
— ''Of whom all paternity in heaven 
and earth is named."^ He desires that, 
in future, you should look upon Him as 
your own loving Father; and that, 
however unworthy you may be, you 
should call yourself His beloved child. 

*Epli. iii. 15. 



74 



GOD OUR FATHER. 



There cannot be a possible doubt of 
this, since it is taught so positively and 
uniformly by His only begotten Son, 
Who is " the Way, and the Truth, and 
the Life."^ 

If, therefore, you desire to live in con- 
formity with the New Law, which was 
made for you, you must no longer see 
God in the light in which the Jews saw 
Him ; but you must see in Him a tender 
Father, and endeavor to cultivate filial 
feelings toward Him. In other words, 
you must now serve God in the spirit of 
love, and not of fear ; for, as the Apostle 
St. Paul tells you, in the most positive 
manner: "You have not received the 
spirit of bondage again in fear; but 
you have received the spirit of adop- 

* John xiv. 6. 



GOD OUR FATHER. 



75 



tion of sons, whereby we cry : Abba 
(Father)."^ - ^ 

Even from a worldly point of view it 
is not good for us to be out of harmony 
with the times in which we live. Im- 
agine, for instance, a man of our days so 
foolishly in love with the manners and 
customs of the thirteenth century as to 
insist that himself and family shall live 
after the fashion of that period. He 
gives his children the education of those 
times, dresses them in the singular cos- 
tume then in vogue, and forces them to 
speak a language which no one can un- 
derstand. In the event of a war, he 
must buckle on strange armor, and with 
heavy sword and cumbersome shield, 
do battle against an enemy skilled in 

* Rom. Yiii. 15. 



76 GOD OUE TATHEE. 

tlie use of the most improved fire-arms. 
Evidently, this man would be entirely 
out of harmony with the present age, to 
his own great inconvenience, and per- 
haps to that of others. And yet, it is 
very certain that this mode of warfare, 
this language and costume were all ex- 
cellent in their day. But that day 
having passed away, no one can revive 
them without untold vexations and in- 
convenience to himself and those with 
whom he is in daily intercourse. 

The same holds good in spiritual mat- 
ters, especially among those who are 
aiming at Christian perfection — whether 
in the world or in the cloister. If, in 
spite of the expressed will of God, to 
look upon Him as your Father, and to 
serve Him in a spirit of filial love, you 



GOD OUR FATHER. 



77 



insist upon viewing Him as the Jews 
did — almost exclusively as a terrible 
Judge, your manner of serving Him will 
never be perfect. You will, indeed, 
dread Him as the Jews did; you will 
tremble at the thought of Him ; but you 
will never have a tender and filial love 
for Him. There will exist no famil- 
iarity between you and Him ; no sun- 
shine will visit your soul ; yea, and 
your very virtues will sicken even unto 
death. And why all this? Because 
you are entirely out of harmony with 
the New Law, which commands you to 
look upon God as your Father. You 
are battling exclusively with weapons 
that were good in their day, but are no 
longer so. You are evidently under a 
great disadvantage, and no words can 



-78 



GOD DUE FATHEE. 



tell the harm which must inevitably fol- 
low — injury to yourself, and annoyance 
to others, especially to your spiritual 
directors 

Moreover, your progress in the spirit- 
ual life is slow, perhaps almost imper- 
ceptible, because, under the influence 
of your gloomy views of God, you drag 
yourself along slowly and painfully, 
instead of running and even flying, as 
you would do, were you thoroughly im- 
bued with " the spirit of adoption of 
sons " — which is a spirit of love. " For 
God hath not given us the spirit of fear : 
but of power, and of love."^ 

Remember, then, that you are not 
Uiuder the Old Law ; that you are not 
of the Jewish people. You are a Chris- 

*II Tim. i. 7. 



GOD OUE FATHEE. 



79 



tian, and consequently a member of that 
newly chosen people of God, whom 
St. Peter addresses in these beautiful 
words : " You are a chosen generation, 
a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a 
purchased people : that you may de- 
clare His virtues. Who hath called you 
out of darkness into His marvellous 
light. Who in time past were not a 
people : but are now the people of God. 
Who had not obtained mercy : but now 
have obtained mercy."^ Yes, Christian 
soul, this is the people of which you 
have the honor and the happiness of 
being a member. Accustom yourself 
to walk in the true spirit of so favored 
a generation. This you will do by 
.acknowledging God as your Father. 

* 1 Peter ii. 9. 



80 GOD OUR FATHEE. 

Under the influence of this cheering 
view of God, yonr whole interior will 
experience a wonderful change, and 
you will, even in this life, enjoy a 
foretaste of heaven ; for you will begin 
to ''taste and see that the Lord is 
sweet." ^ 

What then, you will ask, becomes of 
that fear of God so often recommended 
in the Holy Scriptures ? Is not the fear 
of the Lord still the very beginning of 
wisdom ? Are not even the saints called 
upon to fear God ? " Fear the Lord, all 
ye His Saints ! "f Even so are they 
still exhorted to do ; even so must they 
fear the Lord so long as they remain 
in this world of trial. For, though 
viewing God as our Father is in perfect 

* Ps. xxxiii. 9. t IM, 10. 



GOD OUK FATHER. 



81 



harmony with the Gospel, it by no 
means follows that we must banish all 
fear of God from onr hearts. They 
who should so understand the Gospel 
would be perverting the most consoling 
teachings of Jesus Christ into a cause 
of reprobation. They should certainly 
be classed among those " unlearned and 
unstable " men mentioned by St. Peter, 
Who wrest the Scriptures to their own 
destruction.'' 

There is no denying that the teach- 
ings of our Blessed Lord on this very 
subject have been misunderstood, and 
perverted by giving to the goodness, 
mercy and compassion of God such ex- 
clusive prominence as to ignore, if not 
deny altogether. His divine justice in 
punishing sin. Such ideas of God's 

F 



82 



GOD OTO FATHER. 



goodness are as dangerons as the ans- 
tere views against wMch tliis whole 
"book is directed. Nay, tliey are even 
more dangerous ; for "by thus consider- 
ing God almost exclusively in His in- 
finite goodness, and shutting our eyes 
against the exactions of His justice^ we 
gradually Ibegin to attribute to Him the 
weakness so often seen in over-indul- 
gent parents, who excuse all the faults 
of their children^ and can never find it 
in their hearts to punish them. 

Such false views do even more. They 
insensibly lead to a contempt of God, 
and finally to a total denial of any eter- 
nal punishment hereafter. This is pre- 
cisely the misfortune which has befallen 
Protestants. When they first departed 
from the unity of the Church they in- 



GOD Oim FATHEK. 



83 



dulged in tlie most exaggerated descrij)- 
tions of God's severity in punisMng 
sin. So alarming and appalling were 
their frantic declamations that many, 
after losing all hopes of salvation, be- 
came confirmed maniacs. But a reac- 
tion is taking place in our day, and 
they are fast losing the little faith 
which they had retained from the Cath- 
olic Church. They now teach openly, 
both from the pulpit and through the 
press, that there is no hell, no eternal 
punishment for sin hereafter. God, say 
they, is too good to punish a creature 
forever. They teach that the adulterer, 
the midnight assassin, the robber, and 
the like, who die without repentance, 
and in open rebellion against their 
God, will eventually be the bosom com- 



84 



GOD OUR FATHEE. 



panions of the apostles, martyrs, holy- 
virgins, and others who have led virtu- 
ous lives and deserved the " crown of 
justice thereby. All the passages of 
Holy Scripture, which are so plain and 
emphatic on that subject, they have 
distorted into some other meaning, or 
explained entirely away. Hence, many 
of them have unfortunately succeeded 
in banishing all fear of God from their 
hearts, and some, alas! all virtue, ex- 
cept such exterior appearances as may 
make them seem respectable in the 
eyes of the world. 

We must, therefore, never lull to 
sleep that salutary fear of God which 
keeps watch over our hearts. This 
might be the greatest misfortune that 
could befall us in this world. To love 



GOD OUK FATHER. 85 

God tenderly, supremely, and without 
a particle of fear, is a blessedness re- 
served for ns in our heavenly home. 
But so long as we remain pilgrims here 
below, we must never try, nor even de- 
sire, to lose that fear which is the be- 
ginning of wisdom. 

The greatest saints, however pure 
and mortified, how gifted soever they 
were with the highest contemplation, 
never rose so high as to lose all fear of 
God. Even the Blessed Virgin Mary, 
immaculate though she was, was pen- 
etrated with the fear of the Lord ; 
for she was filled with all the gifts of 
the Holy Ghost, and as the fear of 
the Lord is one of them, she un- 
doubtedly possessed that one as well 
as the rest. Kay, more. Even Jesus 



86 



GOD OUR FATHEE. 



Christ, in His liiiman nature, was pen- 
etrated with a holy fear of God, His 
eternal Father. The prophet Isaiah, 
foretelling the wonderful gifts which 
should adorn the soul of the Redeem- 
er, distinctly mentions the fear of the 
Lord as one of them. ''And the Sj)irit 
of the Lord shall rest upon Him : the 
spirit of wisdom, and of understand- 
ing, the spirit of counsel, and of forti- 
tude, the spirit of knowledge, and of 
godliness. And He shall be filled with 
the spirit of the fear of the Lord.'"^ 
You need not, therefore, imagine that 
viewing God as your Father will ever 
banish all fear of Him from your heart. 
The fear of God being a gift of the 
Holy Ghost suited to our present state 

* Isaiah xi. 2. 



GOD OTJE FATHEE. 



87 



of existence, cannot Tbe dispensed with, 
and we should pray for this salutary- 
fear every day of our lives. 

But, then, this must be a filial fear, 
which is the legitimate offspring of an 
ardent love for God. Such a fear does 
not fill the mind with gloom or dread ; 
neither does it dry up the springs of 
devotion. It does not disturb our peace, 
and much less does it ever impede our 
progress in the path of perfection. It 
is, on the contrary, a help, according 
to the words of the Holy Ghost : " The 
fear of the Lord shall delight the heart, 
and shall give joy, and gladness, and 
length of 4^ys. With him that feareth 
the Lord, it shall go well in the latter 
end, and in the day of his death he 
shall be blessed."^ 

^ Eccles. i. 12, 



88 



GOD OUE FATHER. 



Such, a fear of God is not only desir- 
able, but is even indispensable so long 
as we live in mortal flesh ; and it is 
precisely such a wholesome fear as this 
which flows spontaneously from the 
habit of viewing God as our Father. 
It is the ever faithful companion of 
filial love, and is to be found in all 
good children, who greatly fear to 
offend their father — not so much be- 
cause he has the power to chastise, 
and even to disinherit them, but be- 
cause they love him. St. Teresa speaks 
much of the great fear which she had 
of God. And though she received from 
Him the greatest of favors, and was 
often caressed by Him as a beloved 
child, she, nevertheless, retained a holy 
fear of Him even to her last breath. 



GOD OIJE FATHER. 89 

Such, then, is the idea of God which 
we must endeavor to form in onr mind 
if we desire to be in harmony with the 
gospel. And as we are taught to cherish, 
it, both "by Jesus Christ Himself and 
by His apostles, whom He commis- 
sioned to teach His doctrine, it must, 
of necessity, be the true one. God is 
our Father, and we must cultivate filial 
feelings toward Him : but He still re- 
mains our Sovereign Lord and Judge, 
and we must fear Him. l^'evertheless, if 
we endeavor to see Him habitually in 
the light of a Father, as He desires, our 
fear will be tempered into a sweet, joyful, 
filial fear, which may, indeed, prevent 
us from falling into sin, but will never 
interfere with our love, unless, perhaps, 
it be to increase it more and more. 



CHAPTEE V. 



GOD IS OUR FATHER BECAUSE HE IS 
OUR CREATOR. 

TrXAYING seen that to view God as 
onr Father is in perfect liarmony 
with the teaching's of the Gospel, we 
must now endeavor to imbue our minds 
more thoroughly with this consoling 
truth. In order to do so we must medi- 
tate upon it, and revolve it over and over 
again in our thoughts, until it makes a 
deep and lasting impression, and be- 
comes one of our living convictions. 
It is only thus that this truth can have a 
telling influence upon our heart and life. 

90 



GOD OUR FATHER. 91 

' "When we contemplate God creating 
man, we find that among the many 
thouglits that crowd npon ns there are 
two wliich remain uppermost in our 
minds. Both are true and salutary. 
Both should be fostered with care, and 
never allowed to depart from our bosom. 
They are like twin sisters who live to- 
gether in perfect harmony, and bring 
every blessing by their united presence, 
but are sure to produce evil if separated 
from each other. 

The first of these thoughts is that we 
are the servants of the Most High ; for 
by the act of creation God becomes our 
Sovereign Lord. He is our Master, and 
we are His property. As the clay is 
in the hands of the potter, so are we in 
the hands of God. His dominion over 



92 



GOD OUK FATHEE. 



US is supreme, aud the thought of ques- 
tioning His right to command us what- 
soever He pleases never even enters our 
minds. Standing in the presence of our 
Divine Master, and contemplating His 
majesty and power, we are filled with 
awe, reverence and fear. A feeling of 
willing submission comes over us ; for 
we see clearly that it is perfectly rea- 
sonable that a servant sliould be sub- 
ject and obedient to His Lord. 

The second thought, inseparable from 
this, is that while remaining our Sov- 
ereign Lord, God is also our Father, 
not only because he has called us into 
existence, but also because, by an act 
of unutterable love. He has created ns 
to His own image and likeness. This 
constitutes Him our Father, in the nat- 



aOD OUK FATHEE. 93 

ural order, in a sense deeper than ever 
entered onr minds, or ever will in this 
world. This is the sweet thought which 
fills our hearts with a tender Icve for 
God our heavenly Father. It is from 
this point of view that we are now to 
meditate upon the great mystery of* 
our creation, and, without ignoring or 
forgetting that God is our Lord, we 
shall see that He is also our Father, 
"because He is our Creator. 

We are accustomed to call father the 
man whom the providence of God has 
selected as an instrument to bring us 
into existence. And we are certainly 
right; for God Himself calls him so, 
and commands us to honor, obey and 
love him as such. Yet, if we closely 
examine his claims to paternity we find 



94 



GOD OUE FATHEE. 



them very limited when compared to 
those of God. In fact, they dwindle 
into insignificance in the presence of 
Grod's claims to be called our Father. 

Our earthly father is certainly no 
more than the instrument of our exist- 
ence; he is not the author of it. He 
did not, and could not, fashion our won- 
derful frame, with its bones, sinews, 
arteries, veins, or its various members. 
Still less could he bestow upon us oui^ 
senses, or send the life-blood coursing 
through our veins. Still less could he 
breathe into that wonderful and com- 
plicated structure our soul, that im- 
mortal image of the Living God, endow- 
ed as it is with its memory, intelligence 
and free-will. None of these things did 
our father according to the flesh create 



GOD OUR FATHEE. 95 

or bestow. Such a tliouglit never even 
entered Ms mind. 

If we now turn to our mother and ask 
what part she had in our creation, she 
answers, witli the noble mother of the 
Machabees : " I know not how you were 
formed in my womb : for I neither gave 
you breath, nor life, neither did I frame 
the limbs of every one of you. But the 
Creator of the world." ^ Yes, God alone 
created you, and He alone gave you 
whatever you possess in your soul or 
body. Your earthly parents could not 
have planted even one hair upon your 
head, nor can they now replace even 
one of the many that fall. All men, 
taken together, with all their learning, 
ingenuity and cunning, could not make 

*II Mach. vii. 22. 



96 



GOD OUR FATHER. 



the most insignificant insect, much, less 
give it life. Man, however great and 
powerful in other respects, is totally 
powerless when there is question of 
creating. 

God alone, then, by His power, wis- 
dom and love, called you into exist- 
ence, and made you .the noblest and 
most perfect of all visible creatures. 
He is, therefore, your Father in a sense 
far deeper than you can ever fathom, 
while your earthly father dwindles into 
an instrument used by Him to give you 
the existence which you now enjoy. 

But this is not all. "When once 
created, our earthly father did not, and 
could not, give us growth, strength and 
health. He labored and cared for us 
with love, it is true, but he did not 



GOD OUE FATHEE. 97 

create eitlier the food or the raiment he 
gave US. It was our heavenly Father 
who created and placed within his reach 
whatever he gave us for the sustenance 
and comfort of life. Yes, it was your 
heavenly Father, who maketh His sun 
to rise upon the good and bad, and 
raineth upon the just and the unjust," 
that gave growth to all the necessaries 
of life. Neither your father, nor all 
men taken together, could create a 
morsel of bread or a fibre of raiment. 
Here again, then, as well as in your 
creation, your earthly father appears 
in the capacity of an instrument in the 
hands of your heavenly Father, who 
alone has preserved you, and who 
alone can continue to do so. Certain- 
ly, then, the great, wise and good God, 



98 aOD OUK FATHER. 

to Avliom you owe yonr whole "being^and 
its preservation, is truly your Father. 

But, again, there comes a day, in this 
world, when we no longer need an 
earthly father. We l3ecome of age, 
fully developed in minQ und body, and, 
therefore, fully competent to take care 
of ourselves. We are independent — so 
very independent that we can leave 
home and go where we please to build 
our fortunes — even across the seas, 
where a father's care will never reach 
usu Yea, we may even see the day 
when age and infirmity will make our 
father totally dependent on us. In his 
second childhood, we shall be obliged 
to care for him with all charity, and 
do for him what he did for us when 
we were helpless little children. 



GOD OUE FATHEK. 99 

Oil ! llow different are the relations 
in wliicli we stand toward onr heavenly 
Father ! ITever will there come a time, 
either in this world or in the next, when 
we shall be of age, and shall no longer 
need His npholding hand. Never will 
there dawn a day of independence ; 
never a day, nor even an hour, when 
we shall Ibe so fully grown and devel- 
oped as to be sufficient for ourselves. 
Never shall we be able to leave the 
home of His right hand, and take care 
of ourselves without Him. We need 
Him now as much as we did on the 
first day of our existence ; and when 
as many ages will have rolled by as 
there are drops of water in the ocean, 
and grains of sand on the seashore, we 
shall still need Him as much as we now 



f 



100 GOD OUR FATHER. 

do, ''for in Him we live and move and 
be." ^ And were He, at any time, to 
withdraw His hand from us, even for 
an Instant, we should immediately fall 
Iback into our original nothingness, and 
"be no more ; no, not as much as the in- 
significant insect which we now trample 
under foot. 

God, then, is our Father in a sense 
so true, and yet so deep, that we have 
no words to give it adequate expression. 
The filial tie and the total dependence 
which we contract on the very first day 
of our existence is never broken; no, 
never. And it shall not be broken, 
even if by repeated and continued re- 
bellions against our heavenly Father, 
we compel him to disinherit us, and 

*Actsxvii. 28. 



9 



GOD OUE FATHER. 101 

disown US forever. For even then shall 
we still depend totally npon Him for 
our wretched existence. Such, then, is 
God our Father, creating, preserving 
and upholding us with infinite power 
and wisdom, with a mysterious and un- 
speakable love. 

But you may say: If God is our 
Father, because He is our Creator, is 
He not also the Father of every crea- 
ture, of the sun, moon and stars, and 
of the earth beneath them ? God is the 
author of all creation. In this sense we 
find in the Holy Scriptures, the words 
Father, Creator and Maker often used 
as having the same meaning. For in- 
stance, God speaking to Job from the 
whirlwind, asks : " Who is the father 
of the rain ? or who begot the drops of 



102 GOD OTJE FATHEE. 



dew ? Again, Moses, upbraiding tlie 
cliildren of Israel for tlxeir ingratitude 
to God. says : Is tMs tlie return tliou 
makest to the Lord, foolish and 
senseless people ? Is not He thy Fath- 
er, that hath possessed thee, and made 
thee, and created thee ? And again, 
the j)rophet Isaiah, praying for his peo- 
ple, speaks thns : And now, Lord, 
Thon art our Father, and we are clay : 
and Thou art our Maker, and we are 
the works of Thy hands/*:J: And so in 
other parts of Holy Scripture. 

But when we say that God is our 
Father because He is our Creator, we 
do not mean to assert that, in the act 
of creation we are made partakers of 
the divine nature, as we are of the hu- 

* Job xxxriii. 28. f Deut. xxxii. 6. jlsa. Ixiv. 8. 



OOD OUR FATHEE. 103 

man nature of our parents. Much less 
do we mean to assert that God is onr 
Father in the same sense as He is Fath- 
er to his only begotten Son. For, accord- 
ing to the beautiful words of the Mcene 
Creed, that Son is born of the Father 
before all ages. God of God, Light of 
Light, true God of true God; begotten, 
not made; consubstantial with the 
Father, by whom all things were made.'' 
In such a sublime and strictly literal 
sense as this God neither is, nor can He 
be, our Father. Hence, when we say. 
that God is our Father because He is 
our Creator, we must take it in the 
sense in which He Himself understands 
it when He calls Himself the " one God 
and Father of all, who is above all, and 
through all, and in us all."^ 

*Epli. iv. 6. 



104 



GOD Om FATHEE. 



Moreover^ tliougli it be true tliat, in a 
certain sense^ God may be called the 
Father of all Creation, He is called so, 
principally, if not exclusively, in refer- 
ence to man. First, because man alone 
can know this truth and love God as 
his Father. Secondly, in speaking of 
God's paternity in creatures, we must 
not merely take into account the bare 
act of creation, but also the amount of 
resemblance to Himself which God has 
stamped upon the works of His hands. 
As irrational and inanimate creatures 
are not, properly speaking, images of 
God, but rather mirrors reflecting some 
of His attributes in an inferior degree, 
there is, as St. Thomas says, only a 
vestige of God's paternity to be seen 
in them. They cannot, therefore, with 



GOD OUR FATHER. 



105 



propriety be called cMldren of God^ 
though He is their Creator as well as 
ours. Hence^ when our blessed Lord 
says : " Behold the birds of the air, for 
they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor 
gather into barns,'^ He does not add 
their heavenly Father feedeth them, but 
" your heavenly Father feedeth them."' 

But the case is quite different v/hen 
there is question of man ; for God has 
stamped His likeness upon him in so 
striking a manner that he is, in very 
deed, the living image of the Most High. 
Hence, we alone of all visible creatures 
can say : The light of Thy counte- 
nance, O Lord, is signed upon us.""^ 
Our soul, which, by its very nature, is 
immortal, and is endowed with intelli- 

*Ps. iv. 7. 



106 



GOD OUR TATHEE. 



gence, free-will, and other God-like at- 
tributes, gives ns a right to be called 
children of God in a far stricter sense 
than other creatures. 

But to return. "What is the first in- 
stinct of a child toward its earthly par- 
ents ? One of love, is it not ? Certainly. 
And we should look upon him as a 
monster in nature, who does not love 
his parents ; for it is a law written by 
the hand of God in the heart of every 
child that enters this world. And we 
love our j^arents, too, though we know 
full well how little they had to do with 
our existence and preservation. We 
love them, too, in spite of the many 
imperfections, short-comings, and even 
grievous sins we may discover in them. 
'We love them because they are the in- 



GOD OUR FATHER. 107 

struments of our existence, because tliey 
first loved us, and did what tliey could 
for us. They have thus acquired an 
undeniable claim to our love, which we 
freely give. 

N"ow, if all this be so, as undeniably 
it is, what shall we say of our heavenly . 
Father's claim to our love? Has He 
not done infinitely more than our earth- 
ly parents ever did for us? Has He 
not loved us infinitely more than they 
ever did, or even than they ever can ? 
Their finite love, however ardent it may 
be, disappears almost entirely when 
compared with the infinite love of our 
heavenly Father, which reaches from 
eternity to eternity. 

Yes, Christian reader, your heavenly 
Father loved you from all eternity, be- 



108 GOD OUR FATHER. 

fore you liad any existence, except in 
His mind : " Yea, I have loved thee 
with everlasting love, therefore have I 
drawn thee, taking pity on thee."^ 
IS'ay, the very fact of your existing 
now, is an unbroken act of love on the 
part of God. Listen to the beautiful 
words of the wise man: ''For Thou 
lovest all things that are, and hatest 
none of the things which Thou hast 
made. For Thou didst not appoint, or 
make anything, hating it. And how 
could anything endure, if Thou wouldst 
not? or be preserved, if not called by 
Thee ? But Thou sparest all : because 
they are Thine^ O Lord, who lovest 
souls.'' 

But this is not all. We have seen 

* J erem. xzxi. 3. 



GOD QUE FATHEE. 109 

tliat we love our earthly father, even 
when we discover in him deformity, im- 
perfection and sin. But our love is 
certainly intensified, if that man, be- 
sides being our father, is possessed of 
great personal beauty, learning, wis- 
dom, holiness, and every other perfec- 
tion that makes one truly great and 
noble. If so, what shall we say of the 
love we should have for our heavenly 
Father ? For in Him are united, in an 
infinite degree, all imaginable perfec- 
tions. And now let me close this chapter 
by laying before you a beautiful picture 
of God, drawn by the master-hand of a 
recent but well-known convert to the 
Church. 

Speaking of the teachings of theology, 
he says : " I mean, then, by the Supreme 



110 



GOD OUE FATHER. 



Being, one who is simply self-depend- 
ent, and the only Being who is such ; 
moreover, that He is without beginning, 
or Eternal, and the only Eternal ; that 
in consequence He has lived a whole 
eternity by Himself; and hence, that 
He is all-sufficient, sufficient for His 
own blessedness, and all-blessed, and 
ever-blessed. Further, I mean a Being, 
who, having these prerogatives, has the 
Supreme Good, or rather, is the Supreme 
Good, or has all the attributes of Good 
in infinite intenseness ; all wisdom, all 
truth, all justice, all love, all holiness, 
all beautifulness ; who is omnipotent, 
omniscient, omnipresent, ineffably one, 
absolutely perfect ; and such, that what 
we do not know and cannot even ima- 
gine of Him, is far more wonderful than 



GOD OUR FATHEE. Ill 

what we do and can. I mean one who 
is Sovereign over His own will and ac- 
tions, though always according to the 
eternal Rule of right and wrong, which 
is Himself. I mean, moreover, that He 
created all things out of nothing, and 
preserves them at every moment, and 
could destroy them as easily as He 
made them ; and that, in consequence, 
He is separated from them by an abyss, 
and is incommunicable in all His attri- 
butes. And further. He has stamped 
upon all things, in the hour of their 
creation, their respective natures, and 
has given them their work, and mission, 
and their length of days, greater or 
less, in their appointed place. I mean, 
too, that He is ever present with His 
works, one by one, and confronts every- 



112 GOD OUR FATHER. 

tiling He lias made by His particular 
and most loving Providence, and mani- 
fests Himself to each according to its 
needs ; and lias, on rational beings, im- 
printed the moral law, and given tliem 
power to obey it, imposing npon them 
the duty of worship and service, search- 
ing and scanning them through and 
through with His omniscient eye, and 
putting before them a present trial, and 
a judgment to come. 

Such is what theology teaches about 
God. ... It teaches of a Being infin- 
ite, yet personal; all-blessed, yet ever 
operative ; absolutely separate from the 
creature, yet in every part of the crea- 
tion at every moment ; above all things, 
yet under every thing. It teaches of a 
Being who, though the highest, yet in 



GOD OUR FATHER. 



113 



the work of creation, conservation, gov- 
ernment, retribution, makes Himself, as 
it were, tlie minister and servant of all ; 
who, though inhabiting eternity, allows 
Himself to take an interest and to feel 
a sympathy in the matters of space and 
time.''^ 

This is certainly a grand and sub- 
lime picture of God. Look upon it 
often, and you will find yourself loving 
Him spontaneously. You will even 
feel a noble pride at the thought that 
your heavenly Father is so great, so 
beautiful, wise, good, holy, so com- 
pletely and unspeakably perfect. For 
this is neither a one-sided, nor a nar- 
row-minded view of God. Every divine 
attribute is here presented as infinite ; 

* Dr. ISTewman^s Second University Discourse. 
H 



114 GOD OUE FATHER. 



not one is either ignored, or exagger- 
ated so as to eclipse tlie others. He is 
our God, our Sovereign Lord, King and 
Judge, but He is also our most com- 
passionate Father, because He is our 
Creator. 



CHAPTER VL 



GOD IS OUR FATHER BECAUSE HE HAS 
ADOPTED US m JESUS CHRIST. 

HAYING- seen tliat God is our 
Father because He is our Crea- 
tor, we sliall now endeavor to see liow 
He becomes our Father in the order of 
grace. By an act of unspeakable mercy 
and goodness, He has adopted us in 
Jesus Christ, His own Son, and bestow- 
ed upon us the rights and privileges of 
children in the supernatural order — the 
order of grace and glory. It is of this 
glorious adoption, and of its effects, 
that we shall now speak. 



116 GOD OUR FATHEE. 

What is tlie meaning of adoption? 
It means tlie taking, as our own, the 
children of others, and putting them on 
a footing of equality with our own. 
But these are cold words, and almost 
meaningless when used in reference to 
our adoption as children of God in the 
supernatural order. Let us have re- 
course to a little illustration which will 
throw more light upon the subject than 
abstract words could do. 

Let us suppose a great and mighty 
king, who, of his own goodness, elevates 
to respectability a man and woman, 
whose lot was cast by nature in the 
lowest walks of life. He places them 
in a magnificent palace ; gives them 
immense tracts of land, silver, gold and 
jewels, and whatever else may contri- 



GOD OUR FATHER. 117 

Ibute to their happiness. All these gifts 
they may enjoy, and, moreover, trans- 
mit to their children, and to their chil- 
dren's children, on condition, however, 
that they acknowledge their dependence 
on the good king by obeying him in 
one command both easy and just. They, 
of course, promise obedience ; but, after 
some time of enjoyment, both of them, 
by a positive act of disobedience, re- 
fuse to fulfill the necessary conditions to 
their happiness. Now, it is evident 
that, by this one act of disobedience, 
they themselves, as well as their chil- 
dren, have forfeited all right and title 
to the wealth, position and happiness 
which continued fidelity to the king 
would have secured to them. 
Let us now suppose, further, that 



118 GOD OUK FATHER. 

after some time the king adopts one of 
tlieir children. He is poor, neglected 
and ignorant. But the king clothes 
him as his own, educates him, and pre- 
pares wealth, position and happiness 
of the highest order — all of which he is 
to enjoy when he is of age. 'Now, I ask, 
could that fortunate boy call the king 
his father ? Undoubtedly he could ; and 
he certainly would view him in that 
light, and love him, too, with a love 
even more tender than he could have 
for his father according to the flesh. 

This illustration speaks better than 
words, and all you have to do is to 
substitute Grod for the king, Adam and 
Eve for the man and woman, and your- 
self for the adopted child. Then will 
you begin to see and to understand 



GOD OUR FATHEE. 



119 



how God becomes your Father, in the 
« order of grace, and how you really be- 
came His child, with all the rights and 
privileges of children. But did God, 
in fact, so adopt us ? Did He, by this 
adoption, restore to us what we had 
lost by the prevarication of Adam? 
Yes, He did restore all, and even more ; 
so much so, that the Church, in an ec- 
stacy of wonder and delight, sings, " O 
felix culpa!" — O happy fall, which 
deserved for us so great a Redeemer ! 

We shall now examine a few of the 
most striking passages of Holy Scrip- 
ture, which tell us of our adoption as 
children of God in the order of grace, 
and of the supernatural happiness 
which follows it. Here is one to which 
your special attention is called : " But 



120 GOD OUR FATHER. 

when tlie fullness of time was come, 
God sent His Son, made of a woman, 
made under tlie law, that He might re- 
deem them who were under the law; 
that we might receive the adoption of 
sons. And because you are sons, Grod 
hath sent the Spirit of His Son into 
your hearts, crying: Abba, Father.'"^ 
This is certainly plain and emphatic 
language. It would be difficult to find 
a truth more clearly, or more power- 
fully expressed. The passage needs 
neither comment nor explanation, for 
there is no doubt as to its real mean- 
ing. It asserts simply that, by adop- 
tion, we- are the children of Grod ; that 
in virtue of this adoption, we have a 
right to view Grod as our own Father 5 

*Galat. iv. 



GOD OUE FATHEE. 121 

and that we have, in consequence, tlie 
obligation of loving Him as our Father, 
and of cultivating filial feelings toward 
Him. 

And this looking upon ourselves as 
God's children, must not be understood 
as a mere figure of speech, which does 
not really mean what it says. For it 
does most certainly mean what it as- 
serts in its natural and literal sense ; 
and it is confirmed in that sense by 
other passages of Scripture which can 
easily be adduced. Here is another, 
taken from St. John, the Apostle whom 
Jesus loved. We shall see whether he 
understands it in a figurative or in a 
literal sense : Behold what manner of 
charity the Father hath bestowed upon 
us, that w^ should be called, and should 



122 GOD OUR FATHER. 



be the sons of God Dearly be- 
loved, we are now tlie sons of God; 
and it liatli not yet appeared what we 
shall be. We know that when He shall 
appear, we shall be like Him, because 
we shall see Him as He is." ^ 

This passage is, if possible, still more 
precise and positive than the preceding. 
Moreover, it gives ns a glimpse of the 
unspeakable glory that is to follow as 
the legitimate consequence of our adop- 
tion. For, by becoming children of 
God, we are again clothed with a right 
to possess and enjoy the heavenly in- 
heritance which we had lost in the fall 
of our first parents. Our adoption re- 
stores to us the right to enter heaven, 
not as beggars, but as children who go 

^ I John iii. 



GOD OUR FATHER. 123 



into their father's house as into their 
own. Of this St. Paul assures us in his 
usual forcible manner: ^'For the Spirit 
Himself giveth testimony to our spirit, 
that we are the sons of God. And if 
sons^ heirs also : heirs, indeed, of God, 
and joint-heirs with Christ.'"^ How 
consoling must be so glorious a priv- 
ilege, when we reflect upon it ! We, 
poor disinherited sons of Adam, are 
elevated and made co-heirs with Jesus 
Christ! We should envy the happy 
lot of a poor boy who is adopted by a 
king of this world, because high priv- 
ileges, happiness and glory follow such 
an adoption. Nevertheless, all these 
favors, taken together, are not worthy 
to be compared with the glory to come, 

*Pvom. viii. 16o 



I 

i 

124 GOD OUE FATHEE. 

that sliall be revealed inns,'-^ For tlie 
inlieritance to wliicli Ms adoption gives 
Mm a right, how great and desirable 
soever it may be, is, after all, a cor- 
ruptible one, which a few short years 
will cause to fade away and perish ; 
while ours is an inheritance incor- 
ruptible and undeMed, and that can- 
not fade. f 

But this is not all. TThen there is 
question of the order of grace, God is 
our Father in a sense more sublime. 
He is not our Father merely because 
He bestows upon us a right to an eter- 
nal inheritance ; He is our Father also, 
because Of His own will. He hath 
begotten us by the word of truth,**:}: and 
because, also, we are born of Him. It 
*Rom. yiii. 18. jl Pet. i. 5. ; James i 18. 



GOD OUR FATHEE. 125 

is St. Jolin who teaches us this snblime 
truth. Speaking of those who received 
the Savior, he says: ''As many as re- 
ceived Him, He gave them the power 
to be made the sons of God, to them 
that believe in His name. Who are 
born, not of blood, nor of the will of 
the flesh, nor of the will of man, bnt of 
God.'"'^ Perhaps we could never have 
dared to imagine, and much less to be- 
lieve so consoling a truth, were it not 
so clearly stated in the Holy Scriptures. 

Besides, in speaking of God as our 
Father in the order of nature, we care- 
fully noticed that, in the act of our 
creation, we did not become ''partakers 
of the divine Nature," but only of the 
nature of our earthly parents. But the 

^ Jolin i. 12. 



126 GOD OUK FATHER. 

case is quite different when we speak 
of Him as our Father in tlie order of 
grace. For in the act whereby, of 
His own will He hath begotten us,'- He 
has also communicated Himself to us 
in so wonderful a manner as to make 
us ''partakers of the divine jS'ature.''^ 
This is the unlooked for honor and high 
privilege which seems to crown all the 
other supernatural gifts of our heaven- 
ly Father. It imprints upon us a char- 
acter of resemblance to God far greater 
and more perfect than that in which we 
were created, and it is second only to 
that likeness which shall be revealed in 
us when " we shall be like Him, because 
we shall see Him as He is." For it is 
the communication of Himself in the 
*II Pet. i. 4. 



GOD OUE FATHEE. 



127 



Beatific Yision wMch will complete and 
perfect the resemblance begun liere by 
the gifts of grace, and cause us to sHne 
like God unto all eternity. In other 
things," says Father Lessius, as in 
the fabric of the world, and various de- 
grees of things, certain thin rays of His 
Divinity shine forth, from which we 
can, as it were by conjecture, learn His 
power, His wisdom and His goodness. 
But in our minds, elevated by the light 
of glory, and united to Him in the 
Beatific Yision, the whole plenitude 
of the Divinity shines forth, the whole 
of His beauty softly glows ; so that, 
although the Divinity is one in itself, it 
is in a marvellous manner multiplied, 
so that there seem to be as many Div- 
inities as there are beatified minds." 



128 GOD CUE FATHER. 

But, again. "Not only do we Ibecome, 
indeed, and in very truth, children of 
the Living God by this adoption, but, 
by a natural consequence, we also be- 
come the brethren of Jesus Christ. It 
is our Blessed Lord Himself who teach- 
es us this consoling truth by styling us 
His own brethren. ^'Amen, I say to 
you, as long as you did it to one of 
these, my least brethren, you did it to 
me."^ And, again, rising gloriously 
from the dead, He appears to Mary 
Magdalen, and says to her : Go to my 
brethren, and say to them, I ascend to 
my Father, and to your Father, to my 
God, and to your God."f 

It is evident, then. Christian reader, 
that God is really your Father in the 

* Matt. XXV. 40. t John xx. 17. 



GOD OUR FATHER. 129 

order of grace. For, as in tlie order of 
nature, neither father nor mother could, 
of themselves, have given you exist- 
ence, so, in the order of grace, neither 
priest, nor bishop, nor even the Pope, 
could have given you the spiritual life 
you now enjoy. They were, indeed, 
instruments in the hands of your heav- 
enly Father, and they, no doubt, per- 
formed, with fidelity, the solemn rite 
of baptism. But it was He alone who 
gave you life. You were conceived 
and born in sin, but now, according to 
the emphatic words of the Apostle, 
" You are washed. . . . You are sancti- 
fied. . . . You are justified in the name 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit 
of our God."^ It was He alone who 

*I Cor. vi. 11. 



130 



GOD OUR FATHER. 



clothed you in the rol3e of innocence, 
and made yon Ibeantifnl as tlie very 
angels wlio stand aronnd His tlirone. 
It was He alone who infnsed into you 
sanctifying grace, faith, hope and char- 
ity, and made you His own child. 

Even if you are a convert, and were 
already full grown when baptized, it 
Avas all His work. ISTo doubt, you pre- 
pared yourself by prayer, and by a true 
sorrow for your sins ; but it was He 
who, by enlightening your mind, en- 
abled you to believe. The gift of faith, 
the life, the adoption, the new birth — 
all came from God alone, as well as 
your creation. 

But we have not yet done with God's 
paternity in the order of grace. Who 
preserved you in that life of grace which 



GOD OUK FATHEE. 



131 



yonr heavenly Father "bestowed upon 
you on the day of your baptism ? Cer- 
tainly it was not yourself. For, as 
when once created, you could not suffice 
for yourself, but needed food and rai- 
ment, which all came from God, so, 
also, in the supernatural life which you 
have received, you depend totally on 
God for its preservation. So complete- 
ly dependent on Him are you in the 
order of grace, that you cannot, of your- 
self, even think a good thought. This 
is what St. Paul teaches : Not that 
we are sufficient to think anything of 
ourselves, as of ourselves ; but our suf- 
ficiency is from God."^ 

Here again, then, God is your Father, 
because He is continually preserving 

* II Cor. iii. 5. 



132 GOD OUE FATHEE. 



that precious life of grace, wMcli He 
bestowed upon you on the day of your 
Ibaptism. And when, by wilful mortal 
sin, you lose that life, it is your heav- 
enly Father who still preserves in you 
the light of faith, and the virtue of hope, 
and lovingly prepares the grace that 
may bring back to His bosom the prod- 
igal child. For you are, by yourself 
alone, as powerless to restore to your- 
self the life of grace, as the corpse is to 
restore itself to life. You, therefore, de- 
pend totally on Grod, not only for your 
adoption, and the glorious privileges it 
involves, but also for your preservation 
in that adoption. God is, therefore, your 
Father, in a sense so true, so elevated 
and sublime, that we have no language 
to give it adequate expression. 



GOD OUR FATHER. 1 33 

When we reflect seriously upon all 
this, and endeavor to conceive it fully, 
we are filled with awe at seeing our- 
selves so near to God, and His children 
in so real and so deep a sense. But we 
are also filled with a most tender love 
for so great a God, who, out of His own 
deep love for us, has condescended to 
elevate us to the rank of children. We 
no longer feel inclined to look upon 
God habitually as an inexorable Judge, 
ever holding the rod of justice, but as 
a most loving Father, who, while He 
commands us to fear Him with a filial 
fear, also commands us to love Him, 
and even condescends to reveal a mys- 
terious craving for the trifling measure 
of love which we can give to His divine 
majesty. 



CHAPTER VII. 



YIEWmG GOD AS QUE FATHEE IS OF THE 
GEEATEST HELP TO US IN THE TIME 
OF SPIEITUAL DESOLATION. 

XTAYING sliown that God is onr 
J^-J- Father, because He is our Crea- 
tor, and also because He has adopted 
us in Jesus Christ, thereby elevating us 
to the supernatural order, we shall now 
examine some of the happy results 
which flow to the souls of those who 
bear in mind this consoling truth, and 
who make it a point to consider God 
habitually in the light of a tender Fath- 
er. One of these results is patience, 



GOD OUR FATHER. 135 

resignation and interior peace in the 
various trials which attend the spirit- 
ual life; and, especially, in the sub- 
traction of ail sensible devotion. But, 
before entering upon the subject, I wish 
it to be distinctly understood that, in 
all I am about to say, there is no refer- 
ence whatever to the awful mystical 
trials of which we read so much in the 
lives of the saints. My intention is to 
speak of such trials only as are common 
to all, or nearly all. Christians who are 
aiming at Christian perfection, whether 
in the world or in religious communi- 
ties. 

It is said by a great servant of God, 
.that the entering upon a pious life is 
very much like the entering into a well- 
cultivated garden, filled with beautiful 



136 GOD OUR FATHER. 

flowers, choice frnit-lbearing trees, sing- 
ing birdSj cool springs, and whatever 
else can recreate the senses, and fill the 
soul with innocent pleasure. But, after 
some time of enjoyment, we perceive 
that the flowers begin to lose their fresh- 
ness, beauty and perfume. The fruits, 
also, which at first were so delicious, 
now become tasteless, and even sour. 
The birds no longer sing so sweetly, 
and, after awhile, they have no song. 
The cooling springs are gradually dried 
up, and, finally, we find ourselves in a 
vast barren wilderness, almost destitute 
of every thing that can make life com- 
fortable. 

The great majority of Christians aim- 
ing at Christian perfection, are to pass 
through this wilderness, and to remain 



GOD OUR FATHER. 137 

in it a longer or shorter time, according 
to God's particular dispensation to each 
one of His children. Some there are 
who die while yet in their first fervor, 
and go to their heavenly home, like 
little children who die before they know 
anything of the troubles and cares of 
life. But the majority of pious people 
live long enough to enter the wilder- 
ness. It is, therefore, of this spiritual 
wilderness we are nov/ to speak, and 
we shall see that to look upon God as 
our Father is a great help to us in bear- 
ing patiently, and even joyfully, the 
trials and hardships which in this wil- 
derness are of daily occurrence. 

"While our first fervor lasted, we had 
a supernatural promptitude and ease in 
all that belongs to the service of God. 



138 GOD OUR FATHER. 

We could ''pray always," and that 
with few or no distractions. We liad a 
facility in meditation, and in keeping 
our thoughts upon spiritual things ; in 
fact, good thoughts, heavenly thoughts, 
came to us spontaneously, and remain- 
ed with us without any effort on our 
part. We then felt great sweetness in 
prayer, and joy in the sacraments. We 
could easily perform penances, and sub- 
mit to humiliations. We were troubled 
with but few temptations, and these we 
could manage with perfect ease. In a 
word, we lived with God, and at times 
we fancied we could almost see and 
touch Him, so near to us did He §eem, 
so intimate were we with Him. We 
saw in Him so much beautj^ and good- 
ness, that we loved Him generously and 



GOD OUR FATHER. 



139 



ardently. We even wondered how it 
was possible for anyone not to love 
Him as we did, and we were, in conse- 
quence, not nnfrequently liarsh in onr 
judgments of others. 

But this first fervor, with all its sweet- 
ness and poetry, has passed away, prob- 
ably never to return ; and it has left us 
in the great, cold wilderness. How 
changed seems everything around us ! 
And how changed we ourselves seem ! 
We can scarcely recognize our former 
selves. Even God seems to have 
changed. We no longer see Him in 
so beautiful and captivating a light; 
and we do not, and cannot, love Him 
as we once did. He seems to have gone 
away from us ; for we no longer feel 
His divine presence in our soul. Our 



140 GOD OUR FATHER. 

prayers, too, have become dry, dis- 
tracted and wearisome We feel no 
sensible devotion in the sacraments, and 
we even fancy, at times, tliat we liave 
almost lost our very faith. Our pas- 
sions, which we thought dead and 
buried, now seem stronger and more 
unmanageable than ever. The world, 
too, which we had so heartily despised, 
now puts on charms so captivating and 
seems so capable of giving us perfect 
happiness, that we feel strongly tempt- 
ed to give up all our practices of de- 
votion, and plunge headlong into its 
pleasures. In a word, we have lost all 
sensible devotion and relish for spirit- 
ual things, and we must now drag our- 
selves by main force to do what is of 
strict obligation. If to all this we add 



GOD OUK FATIIEK. 



141 



wrong views of God, and persist in 
looking upon Him principally as an 
inexorable Judge, our state will be dis- 
tressing indeed, and deserving of com- 
passion. 

This, tlien, is the state of spiritual 
existence through which most pious 
people pass, after their first fervor is 
taken from them. Some suffer more, 
and some less ; but it is for all, without 
exception, a state of trial and interior 
suffering. The suffering, however, or 
the gloom at least, is much lessened, if 
we view this state in the right light, 
and have our views of God in harmony 
with the gospel. 

First of all, this is not a bad state, 
as most people imagine it to be. It is 
no evidence that we have lost God's 



142 GOB OUK FATHEE. 

favor, or that we are less lioly in His 
sight than we were when we abounded 
to overflowing with spiritual consola- 
tions. The very reverse is most prob- 
ably the truth; for as this spiritual 
desolation is a particular dispensation 
of God's providence to all who give 
themselves to His service in good ear- 
nest, it must also be a means of sancti- 
fying grace, which does its work as well 
as the far more pleasant state of sensi- 
ble fervor. Hence, how gloomy soever 
all tilings may appear to you, and how 
unpleasant soever all this may be to 
your natural inclination, it is neverthe- 
less brought about by your heavenly 
Father for your greater good and high- 
er sanctiflcation. I must, therefore, tell 
you, in the words of the apostle : " And 



GOD OUR TATKER. 143 



we lieli3ing do exhort you, tliat you re- 
ceive not the grace of God in vain. . . Be- 
hold now is the acceptable time : "behold 
now is the day of salvation."^ 

If, in the second place, you accustom 
yourself to look upon God as your 
Father, this subtraction of all sensible 
devotion, these annoying distractions, 
these troublesome temptations, as well 
as your involuntary distaste for spirit- 
ual things, will appear to you in a light 
which will make them, to say the best, 
very tolerable. For then you will be 
sweetly resigned to the will of God, 
who so ordains it. You will say with 
your Lord Jesus : " My Father, if it be 
possible, let this chalice pass from Me. 
j^evertheless, not as I will, but as thou 

*II Cor. vi. 1. 



144 GOD O UK FATHER. 

wilt."^ This will be your prayer, and 
your dispositions will Tbe in accordance 
with it. For, seeing God as your Father, 
you will become intimately convinced 
that He has brought about this state of 
trial for your greater sanctification, to 
beautify your soul, to make you resem- 
ble Jesus Christ the more, and to fit 
you for a higher place in heaven. 

What is the conduct of parents to- 
ward their children? They tear them 
away from their bosom, and from all 
the sweet pleasures of home, to send 
them far away in order to receive an 
education. The moment of separation 
is heart-rending, but go they must, and 
that, too, among strangers, who, even 
if they would, can never have the hearts 

■^11 Matt. xxvi. 39. 



GOD OUR FATHEE, 145 

and feelings of parents toward them. 
They must now, in their new position, 
observe so many rules, learn so many 
difficult lessons, submit to punishments 
' sometimes apparently too great, and 
sometimes even altogether undeserved, 
and go through all the other annoy- 
ances, self-denials and hardships which 
are involved in the receiving of an edu- 
cation. But what is the ultimate result 
of all this ? It is that the child, who had 
left home ignorant, returns a man. He 
is now educated, accomplished, and can 
present himself, with credit, in society. 
He is, moreover, competent to fill hon- 
orable positions, which he never could 
have done, had his father been so weak- 
minded as to listen to his lamentations, 
and allow him to remain without an 

K 



146 



GOD OUR FATHER. 



education. Hence, howsoever sad and 
painful for tlie cMld was the separa- 
tion, tlie long absence from home, and 
the hardships endured, the sending him 
away was, nevertheless, an act of love 
on the part of his father, for which he, 
on his return, is thankful. 

It is thus that Q-od acts toward His 
children in the order of grace. God 
being your Father by every imaginable 
title, loves you more tenderly than does 
your father according to the flesh. He 
is always, therefore, watching over you, 
and seeking your greater good. He 
tears you from his paternal embrace, 
and sends you away from the sweet 
home of His bosom, that you may be 
schooled by His grace and developed 
into the image of Jesus Christ, 'Tor 



GOD OUR FATHEE. 147 

whom He foreknew. He also predestined 
to be made conformable to the image of 
His Son,"^ who, in His human nature, 
is the standard of created beauty, holi- 
ness and perfection ; and it is only by 
becoming like Him, in a greater or less 
degree of perfection, that we can hope 
to be saved at all. But as our object, 
in leadiiag a pious life, is not merely to 
be saved, but to attain, moreover, to a 
high degree of glory in heaven, it fol- 
lows that our study must be to resemble 
our Lord Jesus Christ in a degree of 
perfection corresponding to the measure 
of grace imparted to us. It follows, 
also, that we must cheerfully submit to 
all the means which Grod makes use of 
to render us more and more perfect in 
the likeness of His Son. 

*Kom. Yiii. 29. 



148 GOD OUE FATHER. 

Now, one of tlie means employed hy 
our heavenly Father to "bring about 
this desired end is this very subtrac- 
tion of all sensible devotion. For it 
is by such trials as dryness in prayer, 
interior desolation, the most horrid and 
distressing temptations, and other kin- 
dred sufferings of the soul, that He 
gradually develops in us a most won- 
derful resemblance to Jesus Christ. He 
thus educates, beautifies and perfects 
our souls, and fits them for the high 
position we are to occupy in the heav- 
enly society. Such trials, therefore, 
instead of making us sad and despond- 
ent, ought to fill us with joy ; for they 
are a most positive evidence of God's 
fatherly love for us. It is precisely be- 
cause He loves you more than you can 



GOD OUE FATHEE. 149 

conceive, that He presses to your lips 
the chalice of which His Son, Jesns 
Christ, and all His chosen ones had to 
drink. For it is a most remarkable 
fact that He has afllicted those who 
loved and served Him best, and that 
He has done so precisely Tbecanse they 
were so dear to Him. Listen to the 
angel speaking to the holy patriarch, 
Tobias : " When thon didst pray with 
tears, and didst bury the dead, and 
didst leave thy dinner, and hide the 
dead by day in thy house, and bury 
them by night, I offered thy prayer to 
the Lord. And because thou wast ac- 
ceptable to God, it was necessary that 
temptation should prove thee."^ Here 
is certainly a just man, most dear to 

* Tob. xii. 



150 GOD CUE FATHEE. 

the heart of God, and, one would think, 
a man who should on that account be 
free from suffering, and yet he must Ibe 
proved by temptation and sorrow. And 
what was the temptation ? It was that 
Tobias should, for a time, be deprived 
of his sight, one of the greatest afllic- 
tions of this life. And this trial comes 
upon him precisely because he is ac- 
ceptable to God. 

Listen also to the words which our 
blessed Lord spoke a few moments be- 
fore His passion : " Amen, Amen, I say 
to you, that you shall lament and weep, 
but the world shall rejoice: and you 
shall be made sorrowful, but your sor- 
row shall be turned into joy."^ It was 
not to His enemies He spoke thus. It 

* John xYi. 20. 



GOD OUR FATHER 



151 



was to His eleven chosen ones, whom 
He called friends, and to all who in 
course of time should endeavor to lead 
a holy life. He traced the path Him- 
self in His own blood, and after Him 
followed His spotless Mother, drinking 
deeper of His chalice than any other 
mortal. Then came the apostles, the 
martyrs, the confessors, the holy vir- 
gins, and all others who lead pious 
lives, and aim at a distinguished place 
in the kingdom of His Father. It is 
plain, then, that the sufferings of this 
life are evidences of God's love for His 
children; and as spiritual desolation 
and absence of sensible devotion are a 
great suffering to a loving soul, it fol- 
lows that they too are to be ranked 
among the marks of Crod's love for us. 



152 GOD OUR FATHER. 

For they develop in the sonl a more 
perfect resemblance to Jesns Christ 
than the sensible devotion of begin- 
ners could ever do 

But these trials do more in our soul. 
They deaden in us, or weaken, at least, 
those passions which would infallibly 
efface or deform the image of Christ in 
proportion as it is formed. Our bosom 
swarms with dangerous passions, and 
among them there is one which gener- 
ally predominates over all others. It 
is called the predominant or ruling pas- 
sion, because our most frequent and 
grievous faults can usually be traced 
to it, as to their source. In one, it is 
pride; in another, it is inordinate and 
dangerous attachments; in another, it 
is an ungoverned temper, and great un- 



GOD OTJE FATHEE. 153 

charitableness to others, botli in word 
and deed ; while in others, it is a most 
dangerous self-trust. These last seem 
to forget that without God they are 
"wretched, and miserable, and poor, 
and blind, and naked."^ Like Peter, 
they are full of confidence in their own 
strength and virtue, and in the sincerity 
of their resolution not to commit sin. 
They even come to look with contempt 
upon others whose exterior is, perhaps, 
not so polished as theirs, and the spirit 
of the Pharisee, who thanked God that 
he was not like other men, is gradually 
formed in them. And the worst is, that 
these good people only half see the dan- 
gerous character of these treacherous 
passions. Even in the supposition that 
^ Apoc. iii. 17. 



154 GOD OUE FATHEE. 

they do see tliem, they are, for the most 
part, so cowarcll}^ that they have not 
the courage to attack them, and to fight 
manfully and master them. 

This being so, what should you ex- 
pect of God, if He is your Father ? Is 
it that He should continue to inundate 
your soul with sensible devotion, and 
make you thereby still more self- con- 
ceited ? Is it that He should shut His 
eyes and let these dangerous passions 
rule you, and drag you into perdition ? 
Certainly not. You would rather expect 
Him either to kill them, or to give them 
well- aimed blows which should, at least, 
render them comparatively harmless. 
This is precisely what He does by send- 
ing you sufi'erings, humiliations, and 
other trials which you never would 



GOD OUR FATHER. 155 

have liad tlie conrage to choose for 
yourself. This is what He does by 
taking away from yon all sensible de- 
votion, thus letting you see how utterly 
wretched you are when left to yourself. 
Evidently, then, such trials are a mani- 
festation of God's tenderest love for 
you. 

A certain young lady, whose father 
was a physician, had been for a long 
time suffering from a dreadful cancer. 
Having tried every remedy without 
success, the father became convinced 
that nothing but a very painful opera- 
tion could save the life of his child. 
He sent the mother to prepare the child, 
and to induce her to submit to the oper- 
ation willingly. The daughter listened 
for awhile, but soon interrupted the 



156 GOD OUE FATHER. 

mother and said: ''Mother, you need 
not use so many arguments. Since the 
operation is pronounced necessary by 
my father, I submit to it willingly. He 
is my father, and I know he loves me 
very tenderly, and will perform this 
operation for my good. I know, more- 
over, that his heart will guide his hand 
in doing what must be done." "What a 
beautiful disposition! And how very 
reasonable ! She knew that this opera- 
tion, however painful, was an act of 
love on the part of her father, and she, 
therefore, submitted without a murmur. 

This is precisely the disposition of 
mind and heart that will gradually be 
formed in you, if you accustom your- 
self to look upon God as your Father. 
You will henceforth need very few, if 



GOD OUR FATHER. 157 

any, argnments to make you submit 
willingly, and even cheerfully, to the 
privation of sensible devotion, and all 
other trials which belong to the spirit- 
ual life. When you are in darkness 
and worried with distractions in prayer ; 
when legions of horrible thoughts rush 
into your mind unbidden, and in spite 
of yourself; when, even after commu- 
nion, such distressing and humiliating 
thoughts crowd upon you, and compel 
you to spend those precious moments in 
almost fruitless endeavors to banish 
them ; when, finally, instead of devotion 
and spiritual sweetness, you feel a gen- 
eral distaste for all the pious practices 
which formerly were the source of so 
much consolation to you, you will, in 
spite of all this, remain in peace. You 



158 GOD OUR FATHEE. 



will say : " Since these trials are permit- 
ted, or sent loy my heavenly Father, 
they certainly mnst be necessary for 
my good. They are, no doubt, intended 
to take away my pride, my confidence 
in myself, and to teach me that of my- 
self I can do nothing. They reveal 
the fact that, without the assistance of 
divine grace, I cannot have even a good 
thought; I therefore submit to them all 
patiently, if not cheerfully. They are, 
indeed, a very painful operation, but I 
know that in all these trials, the heart 
of my heavenly Father guides His 
hand, and I look upon them as evi- 
dences of His love for me." These are 
the sentiments to be found in all per- 
sons who have accustomed themselves 
to look upon Grod as a tender Father. 



GOD OUR FATHER. 159 

But you say: "Howjiappyl should 
be could I believe that my trials are 
evidences of God's love for me ! How 
cheerfully would I then submit to be 
without sensible devotion, and to re- 
main in darkness, temptation and suf- 
fering ! But I have every reason to 
fear that they are only evidences of 
God's anger, and punishments which 
He inflicts upon me for my many sins 
and infidelities to grace." Well, sup- 
pose they are punishments, what then ? 
Are they, therefore, marks of God's 
hatred toward you? Do they mean 
that you are excommunicated from the 
Heart of God? They certainly have 
no such meaning. When you see a 
father chastising his children, do you 
immediately infer that he no longer 



160 GOD OUE FATHEE. 

loves them, or that lie even hates them ? 
Such a thought never enters your mind. 
You know full well that he loves them, 
even while chastising them. You know 
that he inflicts the punishment precise- 
ly because he does love them ; for his 
object is to correct them of defects which 
might eventually prove their "ruin. So 
it is with your heavenly Father, when 
He chastises you. He loves you still, 
and inflicts the punishment precisely 
because He loves you. This is what 
St. Paul tells you in the most positive 
language : "For whom the Lord loYeth 
He chastiseth : and He scourgeth every 
son whom He receiveth. Persevere 
under discipline. God dealeth with 
you as with His sons. . For what son 
is there whom the father does not cor- 



GOD OUR FATHER. 161 

rect? But if you be without cliastise- 
inent, whereof all are made partakers ; 
then you are bastards and not sons."^ 
This language is certainly plain and 
emphatic enough to make you see that, 
even if your trials are merited punish- 
ments for your sins and infidelities, 
they are, nevertheless, evidences of 
your heavenly Father's love for you. 
While inflicting them, His heart guides 
His hand; for He loves you because 
you are His child. His object is to 
correct you of defects, and to destroy 
in you dangerous passions which might 
prove your ruin, or which would cer- 
tainly prevent the likeness of Christ 
from being formed in you, except in a 
very inferior degree. 

^ I Heb. xii. 
L 



162 GOD OUR FATHEE. 

To view Grod, then, as onr Father is 
evidently of great help to ns in bearing 
all the trials and hardships, which are 
inseparable from the spiritual life. With 
that idea of God deeply impressed upon 
our minds, we shall bear them not only 
patiently, bnt also in a meritorious man- 
ner. For, besides forming the image 
of Christ in us, and correcting us of our 
defects, they increase our merits, " For 
that which is at present momentary and 
light of our tribulation, worketh for us 
above measure exceedingly an eternal 
weight of glory."^ They will no longer 
impede our growth in holiness, nor fill 
us with gloom, nor make us despondent, 
nor take away our interior peace. They 
will, on the contrary, cause us to grow in 

*II Cor.iv. 17. 



GOD OUK FATHEE. 



163 



sanctity more rapidly and solidly than 
we could under tlie influence of sensi- 
ble devotion. In a word, tlie tliouglit 
of God as our Father is the sunshine, 
that not only throws a golden light 
upon all the sufi*erings of this life, but, 
moreover, imparts to us in our spiritual 
growth that courage and vigor which 
are so necessary to fight the good fight, 
and to deserve the " Crown of Justice " 
promised to all who distinguish them- 
selves in the practice of virtue. 



CHAPTER yni. 

YIEWmG GOD AS OUR FATHER PRODUCES 
PEACE OF CO^N'SCIEIN'CE AS TO 
OUR PAST si:n's. 

OF tlie many good results wMcli 
flow to our souls from looldno; 
upon God as our Father, one of tlie 
best and most desirable is a cMld-like 
confidence that He has forgiven and 
forgotten our sins ; and that they shall 
neither rise against us at the hour of 
death, nor follow us to judgment, there 
to call for our condemnation. This 
perfect confidence in the mercy of our 
heavenly Father fills the soul with " the 

164 



GOD OTJE FATHEE. 165 

peace of God, wMch. snrpasseth all un- 
derstanding," and is one of the most 
precious gifts tliat can be enjoyed on 
earth. It is, in reality, a foretaste of 
that deep, undisturbed peace which the 
blessed enjoy in heaven. For, in that 
blessed country, the happy inhabitants 
neither have, nor can have, any doubt 
as to the forgiveness of their sins. They 
therefore enjoy, in its fullest extent, the 
peace which comes from Grod, and which 
can never be marred, nor lessened by 
any doubt, nor by any temptation from 
the devil, who finds no entrance into 
the kingdom of peace. This is the 
peace of which we may have a fore- 
taste, in this world, if we have accus- 
tomed ourselves to look upon God as 
our Father. And yet, strange as it 



166 GOD OUR FATHER. 

may seem, even when that true peace 
of God has taken np its abode in our 
hearts, we still retain a deep and abid- 
ing sorrow for our sins. Our attitude 
in the sight of our heavenly Father is 
that of penitent, prodigal children, who 
love much because much has been for- 
given them. We can, and we do heart- 
ily join the penitent David, and say: 
" Have mercy on me, O God, according 
to Thy great mercy. And according to 
the multitude of Thy tender mercies 
blot out my iniquity. Wash me yet 
more and more from my iniquity, and 
cleanse me from my sin. For I know 
my iniquity and my sin is always be- 
fore me."^ But this petition, to be 
washed yet more and more from our 
*Ps.l. 



GOB OUR FATHEE. 167 

sins, and the fact that our sins remain 
"before ns, must not be understood to 
imply in us a belief that they are not 
forgiven. They are the sentiments by 
which we give expression to a peniten- 
tial spirit, which, like the fear of God, 
must remain in us till our last breath, 
but which neither disturbs our sweet 
peace, nor the confidence that our heav- 
enly Father has forgiven us. On the 
contrary, it perfects that peace, and is, 
moreover, an evidence that the same 
comes from God. It is a participation 
of that peace which Jesus left to His 
apostles when He said: "Peace I leave 
with you, my peace I give unto you. 
N"ot as the world giveth, do I give unto, 
you. Let not your heart be troubled, 

nor let it be afraid."^ Such is the 
^Johnxiv. 27. 



168 GOD OUR FATHER. 

peace enjoyed by those cMldren of 
God whose views of Him are in har- 
mony with the teachings of the Grospel. 

But if we have the misfortune of see- 
ing Q-od .principally and habitually as 
our Judge, then farewell to peace of 
conscience. For we shall fall into a 
state of mind so very distressing as to 
make life itself a torture, and one, too, 
bearing no slight resemblance to that 
which is brought about by the sting of 
the v/orm that dieth not. We shall 
now examine that state, in order that 
we may never fall into it, or that we 
may speedily arise from it — if we are 
actually suffering its well-nigh intoler- 
able agony. 

There is a certain class of pious per- 
sons who are never satisfied with their 



GOD OUR FATHEE. 



169 



past confessions. Their sins are always 
before them, as if they had committed 
them but yesterday. Every time there 
is a retreat or a mission, a pious novena, 
or any special devotion, they must make 
a general confession, though they have 
already made several, and have, in all 
probability, been told never again to 
confess those sins. But they have for- 
gotten the prudent advice, or they do 
not think it prudent, and they begin to 
prepare anew their general confession. 
Then, ignoring every confession they 
have ever made, or looking upon every 
one as null and void, not to say sacri- 
legious, and looking upon themselves 
as actually loaded with every sin they 
have ever committed, they work them- 
selves into a state of nervous excitement 



170 GOD OUE FATHER. 

and dread, wMcli so confuses everything 
in their mind as to render it almost 
impossible to make any confession at 
all, in tlie proper spirit. In this state 
of mind they begin the torture of self- 
examination, and dig up the whole past. 
Every thing they have ever done is care- 
fully called up, examined, cross-exam- 
ined, and distorted into some monstrous 
crime — which they fear God will, per- 
haps, never forgive. Sins which they 
committed when mere children are as 
great and awful in their disordered im- 
agination as those into which they fell 
after having attained the full use of 
reason. They had, it is true, confessed 
all these sins before as well as they 
could, but then they had no contrition ; 
so, at least, they imagine. Even now, 



GOD OUR FATHER. ^ 171 

they fear they have no contrition; for 
they do not feel it as they desire. They, 
therefore, dread that their sins will not 
be forgiven — even after all the mental 
torture through which they are now 
passing. The confessor, with much 
difficulty, seems at last to succeed in 
making them belive in God's infinite 
mercy, and finally gives them absolu- 
tion in His name. They go, apparently 
satisfied, but in less than half ah hour, 
they are back in the confessional, to ex- 
plain again and again sins which they 
had repeatedly, and more than suffi- 
ciently, explained ; and also to express 
again their fears that there is no mercy 
for them. 

Is not this a sad state of mind ? It is 
not only sad, it is simply horrible. It 



173 GOD OUE FATHEE. 

reminds ns, even in spite of ourselves, 
of the reprobates wlio clearly see tliat 
their repeated sins, and their impenitent 
death, have made it impossible for the 
mercy of God ever to reach them. By 
their perseverance to the last in sin, 
they have made themselves hopelessly 
and irrevocably the property of God's 
enemy ; they are forever excommuni- 
cated from the Heart of God, without 
one ray of hope. They are, in conse- 
quence, filled with a despair and a 
wretchedness which eye hath not seen, 
nor ear heard, nor heart of man ever 
been able to conceive. It is, as it were, 
a shadow of those intolerable sufi*erings 
which they endure, who have allowed 
doubts of God's goodness and mercy to 
find place in their minds. And what is 



GOD OUE FATHEE. 173 

the cause of it all? A partial cause 
may be tlie imprudence of those who 
allow, or advise, or even require such 
persons to make general confessions ; 
but, if well examined, the principal 
cause will be found in wrong views of 
God. In their eyes, God is only a 
Judge, and not a Father. He is the 
God of infinite purity; the Holy of 
Holies, before whom the very angels 
are not pure. He is the thrice-holy 
God, who abominates every sin, and 
who punishes even an idle word with 
terrific severity. The natural conse- 
quence of this one-sided view of God 
is the state just described — a state of 
mind the most deplorable that can be 
imagined, leading not unfrequently to 
insanity. 



174 GOD OTJE FATHEK. 

Quite recently, a most estimable and 
pious person ended lier life by taking 
poison. She had become possessed 
with the belief that there was no mercy 
for her. She made many general con- 
fessions in order to obtain peace; but 
they seemed only to increase instead 
of curing the evil, and she eventually 
became hopelessly insane. She was 
placed in an asylum where every at- 
tention was bestowed upon her, but all 
to no purpose. Having found means 
of escaping, she procured poison, and 
ended her life. Is it not sad to see a 
once pious lady, and mother of a fam- 
ily, closing her days in such a manner ? 
True, these extreme cases are not of 
frequent occurrence. But even if this 
were the only case, it is certainly tragic 



GOD OUE FATHEE. 175 

enougli to show to wliat sad conse- 
qnences wrong views of God may lead 
those who entertain them, and persist 
in them. 

Now, Christian soul^ are you one of 
those whose misfortune it is to Ibe al- 
ways tortured about their past sins? 
Can you be numbered among those 
who are always fearing their sins are 
not forgiven, and who are ever desiring 
to make general confessions ? If so, it 
is best to tell you that, in all probabil- 
ity, you will never find by oft-repeated 
general confessions, the peace you so 
ardently desire. 

The sacrament of penance was insti- 
tuted, it is true, for the express purpose 
of establishing peace between Grod and 
man. It is, therefore, the great and 



176 GOD OUE FATHER. 

abiding fountain of peace, which in His 
infinite mercy and compassion, God has 
left in His Church. Bnt it must, as 
every other gift of God, be used in the 
proper manner, and in the right spirit ; 
otherwise it may be perverted, as any 
other blessing, into an occasion of posi- 
tive harm. Now, it is so perverted by 
these useless, ill-advised general con- 
fessions, which rather disturb the soul 
than give the peace which is so ardent- 
ly sought. 

God alone is the source of peace. 
" Grace unto you," says St. Paul, " and 
peace from God our Father, and from 
the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the 
God and Father of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, the Father of mercies, and the 
God of all consolation, who comforteth 



GOD OUR FATHER. 177 

US in all our tribulation."^ All true 
and lasting consolation and peace come 
from God, as the light and heat come 
from the sun. They are His own gifts 
which He bestows upon all who make a 
proper use of the means which He has 
appointed. But your groundless anx- 
ieties and repeated general confessions 
are not such means, especially when 
you have been told by a prudent con- 
fessor never to mention or explain your 
sins any more. This certainly cannot 
be pleasing to God, and, therefore, can- 
not incline Him to give you that peace 
of conscience which is the result of a 
filial confidence in His infinite mercy 
and goodness. 
It is evident, from all that has been 

^IlCor.i.^ 



178 



GOD OUR FATHER. 



said in the foregoing chapters, that one 
of the most efficacious means to obtain 
this confidence is to look npon God as 
yonr Father. See Him, therefore, as our 
Blessed Lord represents Him, pressing 
His prodigal son to His bosom, forgiv- 
ing him all his misdeeds, giving him 
the kiss of peace, and, in the joy of His 
heart, calling upon the angels to rejoice 
with Him at the return of His wander- 
ing child. Here is a true picture of God 
Your heavenly Father ; for it is drawn 
"by the hand of Him who is " the Way, 
the Truth, and the Life." Seeing Him 
in this light will not only fill you with 
unbounded confidence in His mercy, 
but will, moreover, induce Him to be- 
stow upon you that peace which He 
alone can give. You will soon find it 



GOD OTJK FATHEE. 179 

easy to trust that your sins are for- 
given. And tlie remembrance of tliem, 
instead of filling you with alarm and 
gloom, as heretofore, will fill your heart 
with a most tender love for your heav- 
enly Father, who, by an act of unspeak- 
able clemency, has not only blotted 
them out, but has, moreover, restored 
to you all the rights and privileges of 
children, which you had lost by your 
sins. 

Another means to obtain peace of 
conscience is, to make frequent and fer- 
vent acts of confidence in the mercy of 
God. These acts have a wonderful efli- 
cacy, because they reach the very Heart 
of God, and peace flows from it, not 
unfrequently, at the very moment the 
act is made. Say, for instance : O my 



180 GOD OUE FATHEE. 

Grod and Father, relying npon Thy in- 
finite goodness and promises, I humbly, 
yet confidently, trust that Thou hast 
forgiven me my many sins ; that Thou 
hast washed me in the precious blood 
of Jesus Christ, Thy well-beloved Son ; 
and that, however unworthy I may have 
been of so great a favor, Thou hast 
made me Thy child again, and clothed 
me anew with the robe of innocence, 
and restored to me all the rights which 
I had lost by my sins. Such acts as 
these, made in all simplicity, will ob- 
tain for you abundant peace, for they 
open the Heart of God, while repeated 
general confessions, which manifest a 
want of confidence, rather close it. 

It is evident, then, that looking upon 
Grod as our Father fills us with perfect 



GOD OUR PATHEE. 181 

confidence in His infinite mercy, and 
eventually gives ns peace of conscience. 
It does more. The thought that God is 
really our loving Father is a very sun, 
under whose rays our souls receive the 
warmth and health which enable them 
to grow in strength and perfection.; 
while narrow-minded views of God, 
which represent Him almost exclusive- 
ly as a terrible Judge, prevent their 
rapid growth, and even introduce in 
them dangerous diseases. Let us give 
a little illustration. 

Suppose you place a plant in a hot- 
house, and then paint all the glass red, 
so as to exclude every other element of 
light except this red color; what will 
be the inevitable consequence? Your 
plant will soon lose its freshness and 



182 GOD OUR FATHER. 

health. In that red glare it will be 
stunted in growth : it will bear only a 
few sickly blossoms, little or no fruit, 
and will be in danger of perishing alto- 
gether. N'o care or attention of yours 
can ever restore it. You may water it, 
dig around its roots, prune it — all will 
be useless. N"othing but the whole light 
of the sun, which contains, besides the 
red, all other colors, blended into the 
one life-giving white light, can ever 
restore this plant to health and vigor, 
or cause it to bloom and bear its fruits 
in abundance. 

This illustration speaks for itself. It 
is a striking image of those persons 
who shut out of their souls almost every 
attribute of God, except the severity 
of His justice in punishing them. In 



GOD OUR FATHER. 183 

the awful glare of tMs exclusive at- 
tribute, they lose their freshness and 
vigor ; their spiritual growth is stunted ; 
their virtues sicken, scarcely bloom, 
and bear no fruit. No care of their 
own or of their directors can restore 
them. There is but one remedy, and 
that is to admit all the attributes of 
God into their soul: His infinite love 
for us, His mercy, His tenderness — ^in a 
word. His fatherly character. In this 
life-^giving light they will soon revive, 
recover their health, and grow rapidly 
in every virtue. For this looking upon 
God as our Father is not only a sun 
that warms and invigorates, it is, more- 
over, as the gentle showers which nour- 
ish and strengthen us to weather the 
storms to be met with in the spiritual 



184 GOD OTJE FATHER. 



life. They who habitually view God 
in that light will surely enjoy the bles- 
sing spoken by the prophet : " Blessed 
be the man that trusteth in the Lord, 
and the Lord shall be his confidence. 
And he shall be as a tree that is plant- 
ed by the waters, that spreadeth out its 
roots toward moisture : and it shall not 
fear when the heat cometh. And the 
leaf thereof shall be green, and in the 
time of drought it shall not be solicit- 
ous, neither shall it cease at anytime 
to bring forth fruit."^ 

In closing this chapter, I must re- 
mark, for fear of being misunderstood, 
that, in all I have said about general 
confessions, I did not mean to condemn 
them as useless or dangerous. I only 

* Jerem. xvii. 



GOD OUR FATHER 



185 



spoke of tlie abuse of them. They are 
good, and God makes use of tliem, at 
times, to bestow a lasting peace on 
souls that had for a long time been in 
darkness and trouble. They are good 
to increase humility, or for other pur- 
poses not prompted by scrupulosities 
or ill-grounded apprehensions ; and we 
know that saints have practised them. 
It might then be asked : when shall I 
know that the motive inducing me to 
make a general confession is a good 
one, and ought to be accepted as such ? 
The infallible rule is to listen to the 
voice of a wise director, and never to 
deviate from it, notwithstanding any 
doubt or anxiety to the contrary. This 
humble submission will make you a 
true child of God ; " And your heart 



186 GOD OUR FATHER. 



shall rejoice; and your joy no man 
sliall take from you."^ 

* John xYi. 22. 



CHAPTER IX. 



YIEWma GOD AS OIJR FATHER PEODrCES 
PEEFEOT LOYE. 

TTTE shall now endeavor to see that 



▼ » looking npon Grod in the light 
of a Father is one of the means whereby 
we reach the perfection of love, which 
all who are leading pious lives so ar- 
dently desire. Before entering upon 
the subject, however, I must remark, 
that in all I am to say about the love 
of God, 1 do not mean that sensible 
love which most pious people enjoy, 
when they first give themselves to Gfod; 




187 



188 GOD OUR FATHER. 

for, altliougli even this sensible love is 
very often enjoyed by those who habit- 
ually view God as their Father, still, as 
it is in no wise essential to perfect love, 
there is no reference to it whatever in 
this chapter. 

All who serve God, in this world, are 
impelled to do so by four distinct mo- 
tives, or principles. These are, fear, 
duty, the love of God, and the hope of 
a reward hereafter. We shall speak 
here only of those motives which have 
a distinct reference to God. In some 
persons the three motives of fear, duty, 
and love, seem to blend and harmonize 
so completely that no one of them pre- 
dominates over the others; while, on 
the contrary, there are other persons 
in whom one of these motives so pre- 



GOD OUR FATHEE. 189 

dominates as, in reality, to become the 
main spring of all tlieir actions. Hence, 
all who serve God may be divided into 
three general classes. This division, 
however, has no reference to their state 
of life, but only to the spirit in which 
they serve God. For, whether they be 
married or single, secular or religious, 
their service of God takes its character 
from the motive which is predominant 
in their minds. 

1. The first class is made up of those 
who habitually view God in the light 
of a terrible Judge. The most promi- 
nent and striking feature which they 
see in Him is an appalling justice and 
severity in punishing sin. These serve 
God ]Qrincipally from a motive of fear, 
as did the Jews ; and their service may 



190 GOD OUR FATHER. 

be compared to that wMcli is given by 
servants to tlieir master. 

2. The second class is composed of 
those who, in their meditations, have 
intimately convinced themselves that 
God has a perfect right to their service. 
He is their Creator, and their Sovereign 
Lord, on whom they totally depend for 
their existence, their continued preser- 
vation, and for whatever they have, or 
can have, either in the order of nature 
or of grace. Being their Lord, in the 
fullest possible sense of the word. He 
has a perfect right to command them, 
and they feel themselves bound to obey 
Him in all things. This being their 
view of God, they serve Him willingly, 
and even cheerfully, from a principle 
of duty. Their service of God is very 



GOD OUR FATHER. 



191 



imich like that wMcli is given to a pow- 
erful monarcli by liis loyal subjects. 

3. The third class consists of those 
who view God as their Father and their 
Redeemer, as the God whose tender 
mercies are above all His works, as the 
God of love. They see in Him so much 
goodness, mercy, compassion, beauty, 
and so many other amiable perfections, 
that they love Him with a generous, 
joyful heart. Hence, their service of 
Him is like that which is given by good 
children to an affectionate parent. It 
is evidently the most perfect service 
possible, and the only one which God 
commands and desires under the new 
law: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
God, with thy whole heart, and with 
thy whole soul, and with thy whole 



192 GOD OUE FATHEE. 

mind. This is the greatest and the 
first commandment."^ 

But yon mnst not infer from this that 
the other motives are not good. They 
are most certainly good, because they 
are supernatural, and they, moreover, 
contain love. For among those who 
are living piously and aiming at Chris- 
tian perfection, it is impossible to con- 
ceive of one serving God exclusively 
from a fear of hell, or purely from a 
principle of duty, without any love at 
all. The mere fact of their leading 
good lives is in itself evidence of their 
love. ^'He that hath my command- 
ments and keepeth them, he it is that 
loveth me," says our Blessed Lord. 
Nevertheless, love is the great motive 

*Matt. xxii. 37. 



GOD OUK FATHEE. 193 

insisted upon in the gospel — not only 
because it is by far the most perfect in 
itself, "but also because it implies both 
fear and duty, over which, however, it 
largely predominates. 

Love implies fear, because the fear 
of God being a gift of the Holy Ghost, 
it must dwell in us as long as we live 
in mortal flesh. Hence, the fear of God, 
which is the beginning of wisdom, and 
the charity of God which is poured forth 
in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, must 
ever dwell inseparably in our hearts, 
during our earthly pilgrimage. Love 
also contains the principle of duty ; for 
he who serves God principally from a 
motive of love, sees as well as any one, 
if not better, that it is our bounden duty 
to serve God, because He is our Creator 



194 



GOD OUR FATHEE. 



and Sovereign Lord. Bnt He sees far 
more. He beholds God in a light which 
makes Him appear lovely "beyond the 
power of words to express. The nat- 
ural consequence is, that while fear and 
duty exercise their legitimate influence 
upon his mind, the love of God so com- 
pletely predominates as to Ibecome the 
main spring of all his actions. A little 
reflection will make this evident. 

We are so constituted by nature, that 
our views and ideas of men, whether 
true or false, exercise a wonderful influ- 
ence over our feelings, affections, and 
conduct toward them. Our idea of a 
man does not change him, or make him 
what we may imagine him to be, but it 
may, and not unfrequently does, change 
us completely in his regard. The un- 



GOD OUR FATHER. 



195 



favorable opinion we have formed of 
another, inevitably leads ns to despise, 
and even to liate Mm, while he may, in 
reality, be deserving of onr sincerest 
love. Suppose, for instance, that you 
have heard evil reports about a man 
who, for a long time, was your bosom 
friend. He has pried into your private 
matters, betrayed your secrets, plotted 
against your interests, and has other- 
wise acted very dishonorably toward 
you. These reports are all false, for 
they are the work of base slanderers ; 
nevertheless, they are so well chained 
together, and have such an appearance 
of truth, that you are betrayed into be- 
lieving them as firmly as if they had 
been proved in a court of justice. Now, 
what is the consequence ? Undoubted- 



196 GOD OUR FATHER. 

ly it is that you now despise, and even 
hate, this former friend, nnless you are 
a Christian and know how to forgive. 
But even then your tender love for him 
is gone. You are totally changed in 
his regard, and will remain so until you 
discover that all the charges brought 
against him are false. 

This being a well-known law of our 
nature, we find it manifesting itself in 
the same manner in reference to God. 
Our idea of God — whether true or false, 
or one-sided — evidently does not change 
Him ; but it may and does change our 
disposition toward Him, for better or 
worse. The fact is, that our views of 
God, true or false, exercise over our 
whole spiritual life an influence which 
it is difficult to exaggerate. Moreover, 



aOD OUR FATHER. 197 

they inevitably lead ns to exercise an 
influence over others — always in ac- 
cordance with our own peculiar views 
of God. This is especially the case, if 
we happen to be directors of souls, 
pastors, superiors in religious com- 
munities, parents, teachers, or in any 
other way clothed with authority to 
teach our fellow creatures. 

From all this, it is evident that, if our 
idea of Grod has been drawn almost ex- 
clusively from the Old Testament, we 
shall habitually look upon Him as our 
Sovereign Lord, Judge, and Master. 
The natural consequence is, that the 
fear, and even the dread, of God will 
predominate in us. We may be faith- 
ful servants, and even loyal subjects; 
but we shall never have the feelings of 



198 GOD OTJE FATHER. 

cMldren toward God. On the other 
hand, it is equally evident, that if we 
have drawn our ideas of God from the 
gospel, we shall behold Him in the light 
of a tender Father, and our love for 
Him will be in keeping with the char- 
acter in which we see Him. It will be 
spontaneous, ardent, and filial. Let us 
attempt, if it be possible, to make this 
still more evident by a brief illustra- 
tion. 

In the days of chivalry, there was a 
young soldier who served his King with 
great devotion. He was brave, impetu- 
ous, and devoted. On one occasion, 
while fighting gallantly under the very 
eye of his Sovereign, he received a se- 
vere wound, which compelled him to 
abandon the field. The King, who 



GOD OTJE FATHER. 



199 



loved Mm much on account of Ms 
bravery and devotedness, wished to 
be present wMle tlie wound was being 
dressed. JSTo sooner was tlie young 
soldier's bosom uncovered tlian the 
King cried out in a transport of joy: 
''My son! my son! It is my well-be- 
loved son!" And so it was. By cer- 
tain marks, lie recognized a son, whom, 
Avhile yet an infant, he had lost in an 
insurrection, twenty years before. 

Were I now to tell you that this dis- 
covery had no effect whatever on the. 
young soldier's mind; that it did not 
awaken a new thought, or feeling, or 
emotion, or a love different from what 
he cherished before, you would say 
that such a thing is utterly impossible. 
You would maintain, that in discover- 



200 GOD OTJE FATHER. 

ing a father in the good King, however 
much he mav have loved him before, a 
new fountain of love broke forth in *his 
bosom, and that a tenderness which he 
had never felt, now flooded his soul. 
You would persist in saying that he 
had new thoughts, new feelings, new 
joys, and that, in the golden light of 
this discovery, he saw a new and glo- 
rious future dawning upon him. You 
would certainly be right in maintaining 
all this ; for it is so completely in ac- 
cordance with our nature that we should 
be filled with astonishment at finding 
it otherwise. 

Now, this is precisely what will hap- 
pen to you, if you discover a Father in 
(rod. So wonderful v/ill be the change 
in your whole interior that you will 



GOD OUE FATHEE. 



201 



seem to yourself another person — liv- 
ing in another world. New, and great, 
and sublime thoughts of God will crowd 
upon you, and a joy "which surpasseth 
all understanding " will take up its 
ahode in your heart. All that inordi- 
nate fear of God which had brought so 
much distress and darkness to your 
soul will be forever banished, and love, 
a true filial love, will become your pre- 
dominant motive for serving God. 

But, besides looking upon God as 
your Father, you must also habitually 
consider yourself as His child. No 
doubt, you will immediately say : What 
is the use of insisting upon this ? If God 
is my Father, is it not evident that I 
am His child? So it is ; and it must be 
confessed that, at first sight, what I 



202 GOB OUK FATHER. 

wisli here to insist npon appears use- 
less. Yet, when we come to look at it 
practically, we find it a very difiicnlt 
thing ; because it involves the firm be- 
lief that God loves each one of us per- 
sonally, and that, too, with unspeak- 
able love. It is all very easily said, 
but, nevertheless, a most difficult thing 
for us to believe and to realize. The 
fact is, that very few persons can be 
persuaded, and very few can persuade 
themselves, that God really loves them 
as He is said to do. They dare not 
believe it. They may believe it ; yea, 
feel certain of it, in the case of others 
whom they look upon as very holy. 
But they can scarcely believe that it is 
so with themselves, because they are, 
in their own eyes, so selfish, imperfect, 



GOD OUR FATKER. 203 

and unamiable. It is very probable 
that even the saints never could rea- 
lize, in this world, the immensity of 
God's love for them. It is related in 
the life of St. Elizabeth, of Hungary, 
that her director found it quite difficult 
to convince her that God loved her 
more than she loved Him. 

You see, then, that it is far from use- 
less to insist that we should always 
view ourselves as children of God. For 
it is the realization of this great and 
consoling truth which will eventually 
make us believe that God loves each 
one of us personally, and which will 
infuse into our soul a peace and joy 
which the world can neither give nor 
take away. If you now examine your- 
self for a moment, you will probably 



204 GOD OrR FATHER. 

discover that yon have never looked 
npon vonrself personally and distinct- 
ly as God's child, and that snch is far 
from being the light in which you con- 
sider yourself even now. Let us see. 
Do you firmly believe that God actual- 
ly loves you, not merely in the mass, as 
a member of the human family, but 
personally and individually ? Are you 
persuaded that, at this very moment, 
God is actually loving you with an in- 
finite love? Do you believe that He is 
now looking upon you with greater 
complacency than ever earthly father 
and mother felt when gazing on their 
first-born ? Do you believe that God's 
love for you is greater, by far, than that 
which either father or mother, or any 
other creature ever had for you ? Most 



GOD OUR FATHER. 205 

probably you do not. You would, per- 
haps, be afraid to believe tliat so great 
a love is actually overshadowing you. 
And yet nothing can be more certain. 
The love of parents is but of yesterday ; 
it is as imperfect, as finite as they them- 
selves ; while the love of God for you is 
from eternity, and will last unto all eter- 
nity — if you continue to love and serve 
Him unto the end. All human love, 
however intense, is less than a drop in 
the ocean when compared with the im- 
mensity of that which your heavenly 
Father has for you. " For God is char- 
ity. By this hath the charity of God 
appeared toward us, because God hath 
sent His only-begotten Son into this 
world, that we may live by Him. In 
this is charity ; not as though we had 



206 



GOD OUR FATHEE. 



loved God, but because He hath, first 
loved 11S5 and sent His Son to be a pro- 
pitiation for our sins."^ This certainly 
is love incomprehensible, for which eter- 
nity itself will not seem long enough to 
thank our heavenly Father. And this 
brings us to the last reflection I wish to 
lay before you. 

The view of God, as our Father, which 
has been the subject of this little book, 
is not the only one taught in the Gospel. 
There we see that God is also our loving 
Redeemer, who, -having clothed Him- 
self in our weak nature, and become 
flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone, 
suffered most terrible tortures, and sub- 
mitted to humiliations so deep that no 
human mind can ever fathom their 

* I John iv. 



GOD OUE FATHEE. 207 

depths. ''He humbled Himself, becom- 
ing obedient nnto death : even the death 
of the cross. Can any greater love 
be conceived ? He had said, a few mo- 
ments before His passion : " Greater 
love than this no man hath, that a man 
lay down his life for his friends. "f But 
He laid it down amidst the greatest 
sufferings, not only for His friends, but 
even for His enemies. 

It was from this wonderful manifesta- 
tion of divine love, as from an inex- 
haustible fountain, that the saints and 
martyrs drew that love which enabled 
them to live such holy lives, and to 
suffer so mu.ch. And it is to this same 
source that we, too, must go, if we de- 
sire to see our love for God increased 

* Phil. ii. 8. t John xv. 13. 



208 



GOD OUE FATHEE. 



and made perfect. If we meditate often 
and seriously upon the life, the suffer- 
ings and ignominious death of a God. 
made Man, and realize, as we shall, the 
fact that He " hath loved us, and washed 
us from our sins, in His own blood,"^ 
our love will soon know no bounds. We 
shall find ourselves able to say with St. 
Paul: "Who, then, shall separate us 
from the love of Christ ? Shall tribula- 
tion ? or distress ? or famine ? or naked- 
ness? or persecution? or the sword? . . But 
in all these things we overcome because 
of Him that hath loved us. For I am 
sure that neither death, nor life, nor 
angels, nor principalities, nor powers, 
nor things present, nor things to come, 
nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor 
* Apoc. i. 5. 



GOD OUR FATHER. 



209 



any other creature shall Ibe able to sep- 
arate us from the love of God, which is 
in Christ Jesus, our Lord."^ 

Such is the love that shall be kindled 
in our hearts^ if, besides looking upon 
God as our Father, we also view Him 
habitually as our loving Redeemer. 

In conclusion, let me exhort you. Chris- 
tian soul, to think often upon God as 
your Father and Redeemer. Pray often 
and fervently that, in future, the idea 
of Father and Redeemer may always 
accompany the thought of God^ and 
be forever inseparable from it. Then, 
indeed, the thought of God, instead of 
bringing dread and gloomy forebodings 
to your soul, will ever be the source of 
peace and joy. It will become the very 

^ Rom. viii. 
O 



210 GOD OUR FATHER. 

sunshine of your life, as well as your 
strength and confidence at the hour of 
death. Yes, when your earthly pilgrim- 
age draws to a close, and the sorrows 
of death begin to encompass you, the 
remembrance that God is your Father 
will enable you to be sweetly resigned 
to His holy will. And the additional 
thought that the Judge before whom 
you are to appear is none other than 
your Savior, Jesus Christ, will fill you 
with unbounded confidence in His mer- 
cy and compassion. 

One of the unspeakable condescen- 
sions of our heavenly Father is the fact 
that He hath given all judgment to His 
Son. "For neither doth the Father 
judge any man: but hath given all 
judgment to the Son. . . . And He hath 



GOD OUE FATHEE. 



211 



given Him power to do jndgment, be- 
cause He is tlie Son of Man."^ O most 
consoling thonglit ! We shall be j udged 
by Jesus Christ as Man. It was as man 
that He suffered and died ; and it is as 
man also that He shall sit " with great 
power and majesty " to judge the living 
and the dead. Having lived as man in 
this world, and experienced all the sin- 
less infirmities of our nature, we may 
rest assured that He knows what allow- 
ance is to be made for the infirmity of 
our nature. For, as St. Paul tells us, 
" We have not a High Priest who can- 
not have compassion on our infirmities : 
but one tempted in all things as we are, 
without sin."f 

The thought of appearing before such 

* John V. 23. t Heb. iv. 15. 



212 



GOD OUR FATHER. 



a Judge will not only banish from your 
"bosom any inordinate fear, bnt will also 
fill yon with nnbonnded confidence in 
His infinite mercy and compassion. It 
will, moreover, clothe you with a super- 
natural strength and courage, which will 
enable you ^o say with the prophet, 

The Lord is my light and my salva- 
tion, whom shall I fear ? The Lord is 
the protector of my life : of whom shall 
I be afraid ? . . . My enemies that troub- 
led me, have themselves been weakened, 
and have fallen. If armies in camp 
should stand together against me, my 
heart shall not fear/"^ 

In such noble and Christian senti- 
ments of perfect resignation and con- 
fidence will you breathe your last in 

* Ps. xxvi. 



GOD OUR FATHER. 



213 



peace, witli a well-grounded hope that 
your Savior will judge you in mercy, 
and say to you : Come, blessed of my 
Father, possess the kingdom prepared 
for you from the foundation of the 
world." Then will your heavenly Fath- 
er press you to His bosom, give you the 
kiss of peace, and bestow upon you 
" the crown of life." Then will you be- 
gin to enjoy, in the company of the 
saints and angels, the life of heaven, 
which the enraptured St. Augustine 
thus eloquently describes : 

" life, eternal life, which God hath 
prepared for them that love Him ; that 
life, the sole principle of life ; happy, 
secure, quiet life ; pure, chaste, beaute- 
ous, holy life ; that life which fears no 
death, dreads no sorrow ; life devoid of 



214 GOD OUR FATHER. 

spot or stain, devoid of pain, corruption, 
anxiety or trouble ; where tliere is no 
enemy to assault us ; no sin to seduce 
us ; no fear to intimidate us ; but per- 
fect love, one and tlie same spirit in all ; 
where God is seen face to face. 

" Happy mansion of glory, the desires 
of my heart are directed to thee. Thy 
infinite beauty constitutes the delight 
of my soul ; the more I consider thee, 
the more I languish with love for thee ; 
sole object of my ardent desires, I am 
charmed with the sweet remembrance 
of thee. 

" There are the harmonious choirs of 
angels ; there the assemblage of heav- 
enly citizens; there the joyful proces- 
sion of those blessed souls, who, from 
the sad pilgrimage of this life, return to 



GOD OUR FATHER. 215 

the never-ending joys of their heavenly 
country. There the choir of prophets, 
whom the spirit of God enlightened with 
a knowledge of future events ; there the 
twelve first preachers of the Christian 
religion, the blessed apostles ; there the 
victorious army of innumerable mar- 
tyrs ; there the sacred assembly of con- 
fessors ; there the true and perfect relig- 
ious ; there the holy women, who over- 
came the pleasures of the world and the 
infirmity of their sex; there the virgins 
and youths who surpassed their years 
by their virtues and sanctity. These 
all rejoice in their proper mansions; 
and though the degree of glory in each 
is different, yet the joy of all is com- 
mon, and shall be so for eternity."^ 

* Meclit. c. xxii. 



216 GOD CUE FATHEE. 

Think often npon tMs glorious life, 
this never-ending happiness which the 
heavenly Father has prepared for His 
beloved children, and the thought will 
gradually detach your heart from this 
world, and cause you to sigh for a better 
one. Look up to your heavenly home, 
where God's children are filled to over- 
flowing with the most perfect and com- 
plete happiness, and you will feel your- 
self encouraged to sufi*er patiently, to 
fight manfully against all your enemies^ 
and thus to win the " Crown of Life.'' 



The End. 



UK 



